[Sarafan]

One of the biggest moments that defined the Freespace universe was the destruction of Capella by the Sathanas fleet, we all wondered what would happen after that, if the GTVA would fight the Shivans again or find a way back to Earth and numerous campaigns were made to answer that question. But have anyone wondered what if that event was averted?

What would happen if the Sathanas fleet was destroyed? Be it by a weapon deployed by the GTVA (or them actually deploying their ships behind the Sathanas :), by something going very wrong on what the Shivans were trying to do or by the hands of Axem's Barney (most propable reason ). What do you people think would happen if those 80 Sathanas were destroyed at Capella?

How the Shivans would be affected is already a huge question by itself, they lose a huge part of their fleet (possibly trowing their forces into a great confusion) but they still have more than enough forces to keep the attack and overrun the system (we see this as its said in the game that the Shivans keep pouring out of the portal non stop in one of the briefings), so their choices would be:

a) Keep the attack and invade the main GTVA systems.
b) Hold position and wait for more Sathanas to complete the original objective whatever it was.
c) Retreat, seeing that resistance is too high or that their ''experiment'' (or whatever it was) failed.

The GTVA, on the other hand, would see this as huge morale booster (specially if they did it) and would earn a brief respite seeing that the main threat just vanished (a huge part of the small craft the Shivans deployed must've come from the Sathanas) but they also took serious losses to their fleet in system and the evacuation would still need to be completed, also if the Shivans were trowed into disarray after that they would counter attacks immediately (possibly crippling to the remaining Shivan forces), either way so their choices would be:

a) Keep the original plan (blowing up the nodes) but delay it somewhat so that everyone can get out.
b) Abort the original plan and hold position, defending the node and wait for reinforcements.
c) Launch a counter attack and try to break the remaining Shivans forces once and for all, only stopping at the nebula (at most launching scouts beyond the 2nd Knossos).

A last thing, its been a while since I played the main FS2 campaign so I'm sorry for any mistakes there might be.

[Dark Hunter]

Alternate timeline story: I like!

Frankly, though, you forgot the Nereid. That ship was gonna collapse the Vega-Capella node after all ships got away.

Maybe you could get around that by having something go wrong with the Nereid... like it was sabotaged or for some reason malfunctioned. Then... GTVA space would remain open to the gigantic Shivan Armada! 

[Polpolion]

Alternate timeline story: I like!

Frankly, though, you forgot the Nereid. That ship was gonna collapse the Vega-Capella node after all ships got away.

Maybe you could get around that by having something go wrong with the Nereid... like it was sabotaged or for some reason malfunctioned. Then... GTVA space would remain open to the gigantic Shivan Armada! 

I think what he was trying to ask is "what would happen if all of the Sathanai were destroyed before they blew Cappella up?" The main reason for the deployment of the Neriad was to prevent the Juggernauts from entering more into GTVA space. With that threat gone, they have no reason to detroy the node, or at least, can delay the destruction for the time being.

[Dark Hunter]

I thought that a vast fleet of destroyers/corvettes/cruisers was entering Gamma Draconis after the Sathanas fleet?
Or was that my imagination (which loves dramatic stuff) running away?

[Mefustae]

They were likely just support vessels for the Sathanas fleet. So that, if anything tried to attack the rear of a Sathanas thinking they're so smart in doing so, a destroyer will jump in right next to them and wipe that superior smirk off their faces forcefully.

Anyway, given the state of local GTVA fleet assets, even a small Shivan Battlegroup would pose too much of a threat to allow into Allied space. The likely outcome would be that, with the Sathanas threat eliminated, Command would wait a short time longer to evacuate more Capellan civilians before sending through the Neried to end the war once and for all. Regardless of what could have happened; by the closing hours of the Battle of Capella, they were collapsing those nodes no matter what.

[NGTM-1R]

I thought that a vast fleet of destroyers/corvettes/cruisers was entering Gamma Draconis after the Sathanas fleet?
Or was that my imagination (which loves dramatic stuff) running away?

There's no real proof that such a fleet exists, actually. It's interesting that the same Shivan destroyer you see in Into The Lion's Den launches the attack on 3rd Fleet HQ. There's really more evidence for the Shivans having expended nearly all their resources on the juggernauts and having very few (and they relatively poor) support craft then the reverse.

[Vasudan Commander]

I think one possibility that no one has ever thought up is that the GTVA collapse under the stress of the aftermath of the war, and the terrans and vasudans goto war once again. I think that 'd make for quite an interesting campaign and story

[Prophet]

There's no real proof that such a fleet exists, actually. It's interesting that the same Shivan destroyer you see in Into The Lion's Den launches the attack on 3rd Fleet HQ. There's really more evidence for the Shivans having expended nearly all their resources on the juggernauts and having very few (and they relatively poor) support craft then the reverse.

There are numerous mentions in the command briefings and regular briefings where Shivans are "flooding" in to GD or Capella. While Command seems very confident on couple of occasions (after ravana/sathanas destruction), it is clear GTVA was greatly outnumbered.

Shivans were coming wave after wave. While GTVA might have been able to hold on it's own pretty well (thanks to alpha1 and other superior pilots), the juggernauts were too much for them. Even without the juggernauts, there was a steady stream of Shivans flooding in to the nebula, and from there in to GTVA space. I know that because Petrarch said it, and because fresh destroyers kept popping up. I find it easy to assume those destroyers were only a part of the incoming Shivan reinforcements.

We may of course assume that those destroyers were the only ones Shivans had in the area. But it still wouldn't mean that Shivans were hanging thin. Nearly every engagement Shivans fought against Alpha 1, was bolstered by at least a cruiser. This tells me Shivans had considerable fleet of cruisers and corvettes to spare.

And besides. Fighting a losing battle against superior force makes a better story.

[NGTM-1R]

Yer missing the point.

I'm not saying any of what you seem to think I'm saying. 80+ juggernauts is nothing to sneeze at. (Quite the flood, too.) I'm merely pointing out that when you get right down to it there does not seem to have been all that much backing up those juggernauts save for their own fighter complements.

[Prophet]

Did they need backing up?

[aldo_14]

Yer missing the point.

I'm not saying any of what you seem to think I'm saying. 80+ juggernauts is nothing to sneeze at. (Quite the flood, too.) I'm merely pointing out that when you get right down to it there does not seem to have been all that much backing up those juggernauts save for their own fighter complements.

But is that a consequence of the game engines limits, though?  To me, most of the command briefs spell out a far larger and more intense war (be it against the NTF or Shivans) than the one we see on-screen.  Things like "The majority of the fleet is fending off a massive attack at the Vega node. Thousands of civilians await evacuation and the enemy continues to flood in from Gamma Draconis." kind of indicate, to me, that we only see a small fragment of the war.

[Vasudan Commander]

Yer missing the point.

I'm not saying any of what you seem to think I'm saying. 80+ juggernauts is nothing to sneeze at. (Quite the flood, too.) I'm merely pointing out that when you get right down to it there does not seem to have been all that much backing up those juggernauts save for their own fighter complements.

But is that a consequence of the game engines limits, though?  To me, most of the command briefs spell out a far larger and more intense war (be it against the NTF or Shivans) than the one we see on-screen.  Things like "The majority of the fleet is fending off a massive attack at the Vega node. Thousands of civilians await evacuation and the enemy continues to flood in from Gamma Draconis." kind of indicate, to me, that we only see a small fragment of the war.

you cant expect to be everywhere at once, seeing every single battle.