![]() ![]() ![]() Shortly afterwards, Vasudan combat elements began to inflict severe damage on what were believed to be Shivan rear-area targets. This bold offensive strategy succeeded longer than pessimists had predicted, and the destruction of the Sathanas juggernaut was seen as analogous to the elimination of the Lucifer 32 years earlier. This decision was bolstered by GTVI's initial threat reassessment, placing the Shivans at technological parity with the GTVA. No unclassified source has ever explained the decision to enter the Knossos portal and attempt to press the Shivans on their own ground, but all signs suggest that the Security Council and High Command elected to test Shivan strength in order to gather strategic information and perhaps secure a permanent resolution of the Shivan threat. The initial Alliance containment effort was overwhelmingly successful. The GTVA entered the Second Shivan Incursion with the caution and contingent planning appropriate to second contact with a xenocidal alien species. As a result, further official studies have been put on hold until more data can be accumulated. Given these inconsistencies, the GTVI has been unable to determine the motivations beind their behaviour. Moreover, no such hive or source of command appeared during the Second Incursion, where the Shivans conducted defensive operations in the nebular theater, deployed a Sathanas probe into Capella, and then pressed an overwhelming attack into Allied space. ![]() But GTVI investigation contraindicates this simplistic model. ![]() Some researchers have suggested this as evidence for a 'hive mind' model of Shivan behavior, with the Lucifer as a queen or leader. Almost overnight, the Shivans degenerated from a major threat to the survival of the Terran and Vasudan species and into a crumbling army of stragglers. With the superdestroyer gone, Shivan forces in Allied space lost strategic cohesion and ceased to aggressively pursue objectives. The most critical question concerns Shivan behavior after the destruction of the Lucifer. Where did the SD Lucifer and its accompanying fleet originate? Why did these Shivans exhibit technology that differed from that of the Shivans of the Second Incursion? If the Shivans were able to equip the Lucifer with an invulnerable sheath shielding system, why did they not also arm these vessels with beam cannons, flak guns, or subspace weapons as seen during the Second Incursion?Ĭonversely, why did Lucifer-class destroyers or their shielding systems not appear during the Second Incursion? This inexplicable variation in Shivan technology levels suggests that some deeper process is at work, one which Alliance analysts do not yet understand. In spite of this examination, and in part because of it, numerous questions remain unresolved. In the wake of the Capella disaster, Shivan behavior during the Great War underwent rigorous re-examination as part of GTVI's participation in the Threat Exigency Initiative. What conclusions could be drawn about Shivan behavior, organization, and objectives remained highly classified. With GTI's Shivan research projects buried, and the question of Earth's fate preoccupying Terran civilization, many aspects of the Great War remained largely uninvestigated. The destruction of the SD Lucifer in 2335 sealed the Sol-Delta Serpentis jump node and all its contingent phasing nodes, bringing the Great War to a halt and cutting off all contact with Earth.
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