[Vasudan Commander]

Well, what do -you- think happened after capella ?  Just want peoples opinions. I know most people make a campaign or mod on what they think happened, but not all of us have the time or skill to do that, so just post your opinion up.

Personally, i think that there are 3 perfectly good systems for those capellan refugees to settle in....Polaris, Regulus and Sirius. The NTF packed up and left with their entire fleet for Gamma Draconis, so the GTVA never had to invade those systems and go battle in them, thus, they're left unscarred (the state the planets are in is questionable though). So the refugees could settle there.

It would obviously take of time for the GTVA to rebuild their military, but i think that once they re-established contact with Sol, and given Sol and earth werent decimated by civil fighting (and we all know we're prone to killing eachother....) the terrans would've united and butchered the vasudans, in an attempt to established GTA dominance across the galaxy.

But if the shivans can appear suddenly in Ross 128, then surely they could appear suddenly in some other system eventually.....

[General Battuta]

There was despair and horror and famine, until Derelict, after which Alpha 2 led the colonization of Tau Sigma through the judicious and fair use of duct tape. 

People are terrified by rumors of gigantic Shivan warships with names like 'Gigas' and 'Gargant', but oddly, they just don't show up.  And no one can quite seem to figure out what they look like, either. 

And remember that oddly named Vasudan transport in 'Apocalypse'?  The Ptah-Nu?  That guy (yes, THAT GUY) is the next Vasudan Emperor.  I swear.  Seriously. 

[Admiral Edivad]

But if the shivans can appear suddenly in Ross 128, then surely they could appear suddenly in some other system eventually.....

SOL

imagine the surprise terrans have when they reopen the Subspace node....

[General Battuta]

...only to find the Earth, in a twist of cosmic irony, has been demolished to make way for a subspace bypass?

And now we know why the Shivans destroyed Capella, folks. 

[Dysko]

These theories are too unrealistic See this one:

As you all know, D3r3k Sm4rt will lead the GTVA. But beyond what remains of Capella, the Shivans, led by Bosch, persuaded the Kilrathi to join them (offering them a huge load of Bosch Beer) in the crusade against the GTVA. In the meanwhile, the GTVA is in war against the Galactic Empire. In order to weaken the GTVA, Bosch sends a Kilrathi on a covert mission: disguise as Sm4rt's cat and then eat him. When the Kilrathi eats Sm4rt, the cat is poisoned and Sm4rt gets out still alive. In the meanwhile, Bosch launched his offensive, and Sm4rt is forced to sign a treat with Luke Skywalker, who is leading the Galactic Empire.
And now, the twist in the tale: the Kushan Mothership gets out of nowhere and attacks everybody. In this moment of extreme danger, Bosch manages to board the Battlecruiser 3000AD and find Sm4rt. In the fight that follows, we eventually discover that Bosch is Sm4rt's father. At the peak of the suspence, the Battlestar Galactica rams the Mothership, blowing it up. The explosion spreads fleas everywhere. The fleas get in the Kilrathi's fur, forcing them to retreat to take a bath and get rid of the fleas. Capitalizing on this moment, the GTVA sends wings of F-16s in an attack against the 5000 kms long Shivan capital ship. The attack succeeds, thus defeating definitively the Shivans. Bosch is captured.
During the celebrations, the Vasudan emperor George Bush beheads Bosch and his friends, putting their in a box that will be showed forever in the Battle of Endor memorial.

EDIT: small correction... I wrote "D3r3k Sm4rt sends a Kilrathi in a covert mission to kill Sm4rt"
Obviously, it was Bosch who sent the Kilrathi on a covert mission...

[Centrixo]

loool .

seriously though, it could be a massive subspace portal to the Shivan homeworld or a warning to the GTVA not to mess around with the Shivans, or even to completly cut the Shivans off frm the GTVA

[Qwer]

I think there are two possible ways:
- Shivans cut off themselves from GTVA to leave them alone for X years to let them grow and then they'll return and fight with them again
- Shivans destroyed Capella because they were very busy somewhere else (like drinking Bosch Beer ) and will return to GTVA with superior forces and destroy it (but not entirerly, there's high chance that some will hide and survive).

[NGTM-1R]

Well, what do -you- think happened after capella?

SD Famine Crisis (15 hours-3 weeks)
The GTD Nereid's subspace drive melts down when activated, causing a 24 hour gap until she can be deployed to collapse the Vega node. During this time a number of Shivan ships escape into Vega. (How they survived the supernova is not clear.) Three destroyers are destroyed in a bomber attack at the Capella node; the SD Famine and three corvettes escape and are hunted down over the next three weeks. Go play Cleaning Crew; that'll tell you more.

The Rebuilding Initatives (4 weeks-7 years)
The GTVA launches a massive shipbuilding program with the dual purposes of stimulating the economy and rebuilding their fleet. Despite considerable upheavals, it works. Under the auspices of the Rebuilding Initatives several large research and development projects come into existence. The most important of these are GUNSLINGER, the anti-juggernaut project, and WARRIOR, a project to improve the GTVA's ability to invade a defended world based on lessons learned during the fighting with the NTF.

Vasudan Civil War (5 months-7 months)
Not telling. You'll have to play Police Action (mine, not TopAce's) when it's done.

Fragment Fri'la Invasion (2 years)
Still not telling. An as-yet unnamed multi-mini-campaign sequence involving Raa's Lizards will chronical this one.

Fragment Giz First Contact (2 and a half years)
More Lizards. But you don't shoot at them this time. You shoot at what's chasing them.

Operation Test Drive (3 and a half years)
The GTVA pokes the hornet's nest via the "Lucifer Node" in Luyten in an extended combat recon and probing attack. It is successful and several sizeable Shivan forces are defeated before the GTVA withdraws and shuts the door behind them.

Ancients War (5 years)
Back From the Grave is the title for this one; it's not done yet. You might guess, correctly, that it has to do with my sig. Beyond that I'm not telling.

Third Shivan War (15 years)
Stuff. And things. Look, I haven't worked this out yet, okay?

[Black Wolf]

Explosions.


Lots of Explosions.

[IceFire]

The Shivans will be back eventually.  Not likely for them to show up in Earth space as I imagine all possible jump nodes, no matter how unstable, are likely to be charted if not traveled.

The big question revolves around the notion that either the Shivans will be back in some form or that the GTVA goes to seek them out either intentionally or unintentionally.  Its really unclear what the Shivans wanted to do at Capella.  Unlikely that what they did could be considered a weapon.  If those 80 juggernauts wanted to break through GTVA lines into the adjacent systems then they could have quite easily done so.  Obviously they weren't really that interested in the GTVA.  They fought them sure... but the Shivans don't seem to employ tactics so much as just overwhelming brute strength in an almost instinctual manner.

So I figure whatever overall strategy they were employing...it was ultimately designed to keep their opposition at bay while they caused the Capella star to go supernova.  Or the star when supernova when they did something else.  More than half of the juggernauts jumped out after the star started to explode.  Its possible that they formed some sort of super node that allowed them to jump a great distance.  Or the resulting jump opened a node or a series of nodes that were inaccessible.  Or it repaired subspace in some fashion.

Remember the briefings from FS1...the Shivans don't seem to stake claim on territory...just jump nodes.  Their physiology is not designed for interaction with strong gravity.  We can presume that they were created or borne of space and they seem to respect subspace above all else.

[Bob-san]

Which is funny because they gathered very close to a star... a star with lots and lots of gravity! I wonder if they have anti-grav systems... any ship that was that close to a star would either be pulled in or crushed.

Anyways... the Shivans definately don't want a fight with the GTVA. It seems that theyre looking for something or another. I think we'd see them in the unmentionable sequel.

[General Battuta]

To the contrary, they were quite a long way from the Capella sun.  It looked tiny in the cutscenes, considering how large stars are.

Definitely a good way up the gravity well, Bob-san.  Not nearly close enough to be drawn in.

And of course they have anti-gravity systems.  We call them "main engines." 

[IceFire]

Whatever the case...subspace is the key.  Its a pattern...Shivans, their attachment to subspace, the star going nova, subspace and gravity wells and their interaction.

The Great War seemed to be something different than the second time around.  The Great War was all about the Shivans targeting and destroying the Terrans and Vasudans.  And then they ignored them the second time.  Its possible that the Sathanas fleet had a different agenda than the Lucifer lead one.  Not to imply rival factions...just different overall goals.

[aldo_14]

Whatever the case...subspace is the key.  Its a pattern...Shivans, their attachment to subspace, the star going nova, subspace and gravity wells and their interaction.

The Great War seemed to be something different than the second time around.  The Great War was all about the Shivans targeting and destroying the Terrans and Vasudans.  And then they ignored them the second time.  Its possible that the Sathanas fleet had a different agenda than the Lucifer lead one.  Not to imply rival factions...just different overall goals.

Just because you have a greater goal doesn't mean you can't be genocidal

[IceFire]

Whatever the case...subspace is the key.  Its a pattern...Shivans, their attachment to subspace, the star going nova, subspace and gravity wells and their interaction.

The Great War seemed to be something different than the second time around.  The Great War was all about the Shivans targeting and destroying the Terrans and Vasudans.  And then they ignored them the second time.  Its possible that the Sathanas fleet had a different agenda than the Lucifer lead one.  Not to imply rival factions...just different overall goals.

Just because you have a greater goal doesn't mean you can't be genocidal

True that...but the Shivans have so much power in their hands that genocide could be construed as an accident like slipping on some grass or sneezing.

[Snail]

I never got the ending. In FS1 it was

OMG THE SHIVANS JUST CAME OUT OF NO WHERE AND KILLED EVERYONE

In FS2 it was:

LOL WE CLOSED THE PORTAL OMG THEY CAN'T GET OUT LOLOLOL LMAO ROFL.

[General Battuta]

Well, they did get out when the GTVA closed the portal, if by that you mean the Knossos.

And no, they couldn't get out of Capella with the nodes sealed, but even GTVA Command isn't stupid enough to think that means they won't return.  The Shivans can make jumps where they really have no right to. 

[Qwer]

Well there's one more possibility that Shivans will never return and they've just gone somewhere and we won't see them anymore. However FreeSpace universe is too beautiful to just let them shade off and we'll simply forget about them. Even if they'll disappear, FS3 will surely reveal secrets of who are they and what happened to them, even if not from them personally then from ancient ruins or something like that. Anyway I doubt anything serious would happen in next 15 years after Capella (rebelion, another Shivan invasion or anything like that). Still I think there's 66% probability that Shivans will return, but what are they motives we can only guess.

[Snail]

Well, they did get out when the GTVA closed the portal, if by that you mean the Knossos.

And no, they couldn't get out of Capella with the nodes sealed, but even GTVA Command isn't stupid enough to think that means they won't return.  The Shivans can make jumps where they really have no right to. 

No, I mean in FS1, they can just make jumps from unstable or non-existent jump nodes, but then in FS2 they decide to just close the jump nodes.

[AlphaOne]

Well after Alpha1 crashed they barbeque in capella they could of gone to Earth and started a barbeque there. Who knows maibe they used humans as machstick's or some sort of meat balls to be deep fried along with thery steakes or sauseges....damn spelling!