[Mischief Maker]

Well don't forget that the back of the box says that the Shivans are wondering what happened to their scouting party.

So the Shivans might send out lucifer fleets to wipe out species that first develop subspace drive technology.  The fighters with their shields, and the lucifer with its super shields, would be invincible against a species without beam weapons.  By a lucky shot and a one-chance-in-a-million strike mission, the Terrans and Vasudans managed to take advantage of the Lucifer's subspace weakness and survive where the Ancients and countless other species failed.

Since the shivans found in FS2 are in a nebula system, one might assume they are either part of the main bulk of the Shivan military, which eschews shields in favor of overwhelming firepower against beam-using enemies, OR are another specialized type of fleet.  Lucifer fleets are genocide fleets against undeveloped foes, Sathanis fleets are containment fleets against more advanced foes.  Blowing up Capella nicely cut off the GTVA from Shivan (sub?)space, didn't it?

[Snail]

The stuff on the box is non-canon.

[Kopachris]

Well don't forget that the back of the box says that the Shivans are wondering what happened to their scouting party.

So the Shivans might send out lucifer fleets to wipe out species that first develop subspace drive technology.  The fighters with their shields, and the lucifer with its super shields, would be invincible against a species without beam weapons.  By a lucky shot and a one-chance-in-a-million strike mission, the Terrans and Vasudans managed to take advantage of the Lucifer's subspace weakness and survive where the Ancients and countless other species failed.

Since the shivans found in FS2 are in a nebula system, one might assume they are either part of the main bulk of the Shivan military, which eschews shields in favor of overwhelming firepower against beam-using enemies, OR are another specialized type of fleet.  Lucifer fleets are genocide fleets against undeveloped foes, Sathanis fleets are containment fleets against more advanced foes.  Blowing up Capella nicely cut off the GTVA from Shivan (sub?)space, didn't it?

The GTVA cutting off Capella from the Shivans let the Shivans blow up Capella without destroying the rest of Terran-Vasudan space so the Shivans could get home to subspace.  The Lucifer was there to let the Terrans and Vasudans know that they're powerful and that they can destroy us, so they'll cut off Capella later on.  I don't like to think of the Shivans as mindless killing machines with no other wish than to destroy people.  I think they're smarter than that.  I mean, look at it: if the Shivans just wanted to kill everything, then there would be nothing to do, no motivation for anything on a galactic scale.  And the Shivans aren't destroying for resources, they're destroying the resources.  I think they're just trying to get home, but don't want to hurt people.

[Mawhrin]

...which would cause the subspace shockwave from the Capella star (the star they deemed perfect to get back) going supernova to travel along the subspace nodes and wipe out every charted system in the galaxy.  So, they attacked us to get us to cut off Capella.

Why didn't the Shivans destroy the nodes themselves? If they had never opened fire on GTA or PVN vessels would they have been able to pass through unhindered?

[Kopachris]

Because they don't have two old destroyers that they don't need anymore filled with Meson warheads.

[Jeff Vader]

If we assume that the Shivans could sacrifice two Sathanases, they could have sent those away and, idk, self-destruct them. Of course I am also assuming that the energy output of a Sath is enough to collapse a node, when fully released. And this assumption comes from the fact that a Lucifer was able to do the trick, while a Sath is huuge and has some dastardly forward-facing anti-capital firepower.

[Clawandfang]

Hang on, the Shivans are the Guardians of Subspace I thought. Why would they be promoting the destuction of nodes?

[Snail]

Hang on, the Shivans are the Guardians of Subspace I thought. Why would they be promoting the destuction of nodes?

Yeah wondering that too.

[RedBaron]

Well don't forget that the back of the box says that the Shivans are wondering what happened to their scouting party.

So the Shivans might send out lucifer fleets to wipe out species that first develop subspace drive technology.  The fighters with their shields, and the lucifer with its super shields, would be invincible against a species without beam weapons.  By a lucky shot and a one-chance-in-a-million strike mission, the Terrans and Vasudans managed to take advantage of the Lucifer's subspace weakness and survive where the Ancients and countless other species failed.

Since the shivans found in FS2 are in a nebula system, one might assume they are either part of the main bulk of the Shivan military, which eschews shields in favor of overwhelming firepower against beam-using enemies, OR are another specialized type of fleet.  Lucifer fleets are genocide fleets against undeveloped foes, Sathanis fleets are containment fleets against more advanced foes.  Blowing up Capella nicely cut off the GTVA from Shivan (sub?)space, didn't it?

The GTVA cutting off Capella from the Shivans let the Shivans blow up Capella without destroying the rest of Terran-Vasudan space so the Shivans could get home to subspace.  The Lucifer was there to let the Terrans and Vasudans know that they're powerful and that they can destroy us, so they'll cut off Capella later on.  I don't like to think of the Shivans as mindless killing machines with no other wish than to destroy people.  I think they're smarter than that.  I mean, look at it: if the Shivans just wanted to kill everything, then there would be nothing to do, no motivation for anything on a galactic scale.  And the Shivans aren't destroying for resources, they're destroying the resources.  I think they're just trying to get home, but don't want to hurt people.

no^^ do you think theyve destroyed vasuda prime just to show us that theire powerful?

they were going to destroy earth....they were going to kill every single vasudan and terran! They are not JUST trying to get home they are ass****...

[Snail]

they were going to destroy earth....they were going to kill every single vasudan and terran! They are not JUST trying to get home they are ass****...

Perhaps the Shivans have more than one goal. Maybe they want to destroy T/Vs, but ALSO want to get home.

[Clawandfang]

They can multi-task? Gosh... the Shivans must be female!

Seriously though, the Shivans appear very single-minded to me. Have you ever seen military Shivan forces retreat? I can't think of any, and this would be a sign of no long-term planning. Hmm... after having written this I realise that they arn't that well connected... ah... make of it what you will.

[terran_emperor]

Which is why i believe that the Shivans are Destructivly testing the GTVA. Capella was done for sheer "WTF?!" value to see the reaction.

[Droid803]

Or maybe, they're on the run from something even bigger badder and meaner...
And don't want to be bothered.

[terran_emperor]

That could work. The shivan fleets are refugees. That would make us mass murderers. Though it makes you wonder. How powerful must this enemy must be to make the shivans run?

[Jeff Vader]

That could work. The shivan fleets are refugees. That would make us mass murderers.

Still, as far as we know, they shot first.

[NGTM-1R]

In addition to the extra surface area to be shielded (and let's face it, the Sath's design is not nearly so efficent in this context as the Lucifer's either), the Sathanas is using up a lot of power on both its BFReds and the star-nuker equipment presumably, and probably on propulsion as well. So shielding it is probably out of the question. Or, they can shield it, but it requires diverting so much power from other systems as to cripple the ship.

We assume the juggernauts that we saw "go dark" in the process of destroying Capella were destroyed in the supernova shockwave, but we didn't actually see it happen. Instead, possibly, they shut down all systems and put the power into the shield devices they haven't used so far because they can move and shoot, or turn on their shields: pick one.

[terran_emperor]

Personally i think GTI made the first shots, or did something that honked off the shivans and made them want retaliation. I dont know, maybe they accidently killed the shivan's leader or experimented on the wrong people

[Snail]

I doubt that every war the Shivans got in to was started by a misunderstanding.

[terran_emperor]

I dont know. Maybe the shivans take Aliens experimenting on their kind personally, like someone insulted their mother.

Completly new theory.
Maybe the shivans just dont like being insulted.
The whole war with the shivans is because on the unofficial 1st contact before fs2 (it is stated canonically that GTI knew about them prior to Ross 128), Someone from GTI said something like "Your Mother/mum...(Fill rest of insult here)" and the shivans took it personally.

Has any read the star trek book I.Q. by John De Lancie? There;s a bit where he talks about how the conflict between the Q and M continuums started. Basically they met up and decided that they dont like each other. They then stood around not likeing each other for a while trading the odd rude comment. Eventually, someone made the coment "Your Mum!" and that started the whole conflict started.

 I postulate that something like that started the great war with the shivans. And then in FS2, the initial shivan conflict was caused because someone on the NTC Trinity swore at the shivans, saying the worst swareword in the umiverse  "Belgium" (no offence to any Belgians, im a douglas adams fan). Then later when the Iceni comms with the raphraem, Bosch says the worst insult imginable to Shivans "I seem to be having a great deal of difficulty with MY lifestyle lately".

This leads to capella being Nuked

[Snail]

I dont know. Maybe the shivans take Aliens experimenting on their kind personally, like someone insulted their mother.

Insulting someone's mother is a reason for war? A reason to sacrifice millions of their kind?