Now that you are talking about it, I’ve got a shivan hypothesis relating to those minor inconsistences you are mentioning. Some people believe the shivans are destroyers or preservers. Others think they are plainly xenophobic. But perhaps they are just a very logical species. I think the shivans can’t stand the fact that we just don’t make sense.
When the shivans arrive to investigate and put an end to our irrational conflict, after fourteen years of war, we (Terrans and Vasudans) form an alliance and suddenly, we don’t care about our differences anymore. We don’t even mention that war anymore. That doesn’t makes any sense.
Then the HoL begins to aid the Shivans. And they do it with the mighty Aten class cruisers! The shivans got the indestructible ship, the Vasudans got the worst cruiser in game, and yet the HoL thinks the great destroyers need their help. Now THAT doesn’t makes any sense.
What about the Vasudans replacing the Amun with the Osiris? Or Terrans replacing the Avenger with the Subach and the Orion with the Hecate? And the Fenris, that cruiser alone makes no sense! Jesus, what about Vasudans replacing parlamentarism with a totalitarian monarchy!?
This brings me to the decision makers. Sometimes, it seems like they are drunk or just plain stupid. They complain if you fail to protect the Thebes in Bearbaiting. Funny thing is, they just lost the Phoenicia out of pure stupidity, and they really don’t care about that.
In the Sicillian Defense, command expects you to protect a corvette against a destroyer, a corvette, and two cruisers.
And there are dozens of examples like those.
All of this just doesn’t makes any sense.
I’m speculating here, but maybe, when Bosch tried to communicate with the Shivans, a spark of hope begun to grow in their little shivan souls. Maybe they thought they could “civilize” us. But we know that encounter didn’t fared well.
Maybe Bosch asked for a sugar free coffee and two donuts. Maybe he showed a Helios-compatible Myrmidon, or worse, GTVA next years planned budget. It must have been some ridiculous piece of Terran or Vasudan culture. And then, the Shivans just went insane. They started beating their shivan heads against the walls in the Iceni, and when the crew panicked at this seemingly irrational behaviour (how ironic) and started to shot, a battle took place.
It doesn’t matters anyway. The Shivans were just too confused by useless things like printed manuals or software patents. They gathered the fleet, ran to Capella, divided in teams, and started playing a game called “Who can blow up Capella first?”. Finally, when a winner was declared, the rest of the competitors jumped out, and went far away in the galaxy, where they could recover from the shock caused to their minds by the cultural clash.
The winners stayed in Capella to celebrate. In their honor, Petrarch pronounced the last senseless words in the game: “According to observers, Alpha 1 remained behind, so that others may reach the Vega node...”
