[Gamma_Draconis]

He wasn't the only one taken. A few other crewmen were also taken. I wonder what they think of the Shivan's food.

[BlueFlames]

Meh.  They probably are the shivan's food.  Bosch may as well have painted "Free Food" on the side of the Iceni when he broadcast his ETAK signal.  Seriously, what other reason could the shivans have for taking Bosch aboard?  ETAK is a presumably large device, built into the Iceni.  How's he supposed to communicate once taken off of the Iceni?

No, I'd say Bosch was a nice enigma during the campaign, but by the end of it all, his hollowed-out corpse is a nice hood ornament on the front of a shivan transport.

[S-99]

Presumably large device? Damn, why does everyone got to think this. Etak probably just worked through a modified terran comm system. After that etak is probably just knowing the shivans language. For years since the gti rebellion the scientists knew that shivans communicate in quantum pulses. The defunct gti project called etak is probably no more than figuring out which quantum pulses the shivans reacted too and secondly figuring out their language.

Etak sounds more like a strategy to communicate with the shivans that uses probably just modified existing technology to carry it out. Probably the only thing significant to the technology of etak is what produces the communicable quantum pulses for the shivans to hear bosch. After that, knowing a language is highly primary. But, for all bosch knows this is happening.

Bosch: ROFLMFAO! i'm so ****ing cool, i'll tell these shivans they rule!
Etak (broadcasting to shivans as bosch types): bllrrrbllrllzzzrbllbllbllrrrblbllrrrblllrr
Shivan1: Goddamn! I'm starting to think this guy's retarded?
Shivan2: WTF! Why'd we pick this guy up?
Shivan1: LOLZ! He has beer for us.
Shivan2: WTF! Can't you teach him to say streaming nonsense with some vowels, i'm getting real tired of this b-l-r-z ****!
Etak (piping shivan speech through two stereo speakers): bllrrrzzbbblllrrrrrrrrrrbbbbbbbllllllllrrrrrzzblrlblrzblllrrzz
Bosch: ROFLMFAO! I TOTALLY UNDERSTOOD THAT DUDERS!!!

[BlueFlames]

Damn, why does everyone got to think this?

Probably has something to do with the fact that the Iceni was built with the development of ETAK in mind.  You don't build a 64-meter radio telescope to pick up cell phone signals, and you don't build a corvette-sized warship around a handheld device or a piece of machinery you could put into just any vessel.  Even if it is as simple as a modified communication array, how's Bosch supposed to use it, once he's off the Iceni?  I'd be interested to know how he's supposed to make quantum pulses without any equipment inherent to ETAK.  Even if he's going to try to modify equipment aboard the shivan vessel, I doubt the shivans have manuals written in English to simplify things for him.

You've got to do better than that to convince me that the shivans didn't invent Bosch-brand Bosch Burgers after their romp through the Iceni.

[blackhole]

Why the hell would shivans capture bosch only to kill him? What sense is there in it? Shivans have been shown in every instance (and espiecally that cargo ship cutscene in FS1) that if they are going to kill someone, they don't do it nicely. They kill them. Taking bosch aboard one of their ships instead of just killing him outright, only to kill him once he is aboard, defies all canon shivan activity.

[S-99]

Bosch coincidentally had all of this beer on board, and burgers when the shivans came aboard and fried everyone with those built in beam cannons shivans have on them. I'd say shivans invented this human burger, and bosch named it cleverly enough for the cooks/shivans.

Anyway, when the shivans came along and bosch had all of his beer on board. It was just a party waiting to happen.

[TrashMan]

IIRC, the Iceni was a new ship allready being built as a prototype by the GTVA, before Bosch sized the shipyards and all.. I don't think it was built around the ETAK device.

[S-99]

The ship was probably adapted to bosch's plan after he captured it. He only had one ship which was the pride, joy, and supremacy of the ntf. Meanwhile the gtva has it's own flagship the colossus. But, i like the idea of the iceni being a much cooler flagship for anything besides the colossus.

[Stormkeeper]

I'd like to think that Bosch is still out there, waiting for the time when he will return to us, his faithful follo--. Er. I mean. When he tries to get an alliance with the Shivans.

[Snail]

I personally think that Bosch tried to communicate with the Shivans but they couldn't sustain him (couldn't give him food, etc.)

I think the quantum pulses are more of 'orders' than anything else. So instead of:
Shivan1: Hey Bob, monkeys jumping in with their fishheaded friends, lets go kill them now!
it would be:
Shivan1: attack. <and nothing else>

[karajorma]

It's quite possible that they took him back to stick him in a museum! Look ma! A Taking human!

[Snail]

More like a zoo actually.

[karajorma]

I said museum cause you'd have to stick him back together after the autopsy for a zoo.

[Snail]

Hmmm... I think that Bosch himself would be put in a museum, Gibson would go to the zoo, and Sarno would become a stuffed trophy for old retired Admiral Scree-Scra-Screech

[colecampbell666]

The Iceni was not built to house the ETAK, only to transport it to GD. ETAK could have probably fit onto a much smaller ship, but the Iceni would have a higher chance of survival.

[Unknown Target]

Maybe the Iceni's design was integral to ETAK being able to function?

[Snail]

The Iceni was not built to house the ETAK, only to transport it to GD. ETAK could have probably fit onto a much smaller ship, but the Iceni would have a higher chance of survival.

Give me canon information.

[karajorma]

"Where's Admiral Bosch?"
"They took him away, with Gibson and Sarno and about a dozen others. You've got to get us out of here NOW!"
"Is the communication technology on board?"
"Listen to me! Bosch initiated the self-destruct sequence! We have only a few minutes left!"

Seems to suggest that ETAK might not have been on board the Iceni any more. Which means that Command at that point didn't know if ETAK was portable or not. Now admittedly they didn't know everything about the project but they did have scans of the Iceni, the contents of the Sunder and the technical details you smuggled out in ...but hate the traitor.

[S-99]

I'd sure say that bosch is the worst foe the gtva had to deal with. Perhaps onboard a shivan ship, he found out that the shivans went thousands of years of no loving. Turns out bosch found out the shivans like getting pet. Their bellies rubbed and their ears scratched behind of. With this knowledge bosch will surely make his way to the highest ranking shivan in existence.

Maybe he already has? We don't know if bosch is responsible, or if it was just the shivans not acting with him sending all those sathani to capella.

Here's another thing, perhaps making capella go nova was the shivans way of making space unpassable so gtva couldn't snoop around in gamma drac, the nebula, and the binary system, and beyond. Perhaps just as much of the way the gtva was closing the capella nodes. If you make a star go nova, with the prospect of shivans swimming around in a new nebula, i think aside from the hot nebula, you wouldn't be able to pass through.

[colecampbell666]

@Snail - That is just my take, and what Kara said supports it.

@S-99 - The supernova unpassability part might have been a bonus, but i don't think that it was the main reason.