Taristin wrote:Better question; How was the colossus a secret? Khonsu spoke of making it 20 years before...

And a contract of that size, even if kept secret, would have surely been leaked by people in the various subcontracted companies. Especially with a 20 year construction period.


No?

[strange thought process]

That is my biggest theory to date - how DID they keep it a secret?

I believe, that in the end - they created not one, but two Colossus class hulls.

Hear me out - which draws more importance and attention not to mention potential sabotuers?:

1. a super-project that is kept a closely-gaurded secret and one which nobody wants you to hear about, which in turns elicits significant curiosity and attention?

2. A super-project, into which lots of resources were poured. but then became a massive bust and embarresment? The nature of the project would not need to be revealed very much, but all one had to do was declare it a failiure with a (fake) scrap report, and anyone interested would simply glance over. Anyone that mentioned it in rumours wouldn't matter - simply because it was common knowledge that such a project failed and it was a big hoo-ha a long time ago. Nobody would speak about it or bother very much about it.


What if....Command had first created a Colossus hull, but left it hollow. It would have no engine, no fighterbay and maybe a few sparse beam cannons to prove that it could be done...and then declared it a failiure, saying the design was unfeasable, unusable. They would close the book officially on such projects, and instead seemingly focused on the next best thing - the Hecates and the Deimos class Corvettes, along with the Iceni.

Then...what if, Command decided to continue with the project, in secret. Who would ask about a Juggernaught class vessel, when one could simply call it a prototype variant of the Hecate class? It had taken them 10 years to build a hulk, it would take them shorter to build a proper vessel, now that they had learned from the previous mistakes, it would be significantly cheaper too...all they had to do was draw out the construction long enough.

If anyone asked about the project, or even tried to locate the hull, they would simply be sent to the older one, which would have been in a near-infinitely long process of scrapping and the secret would be kept safe.

It would fit in well enough with the overall scheme of things...more interestingly, though, it somewhat explains the Colossus's status in the end - being disabled and without a single fighter. If the primary colossus had been moved out, and the duplicate put in it's place (it is possible to sneak it around - as proven in Epsilon Pegasi) it would explain a lot about the mission's nature. Remember the commnet "You call that a fleet, command?" by your wingmen in their finest hour? The Colossus's fleet was pretty darn big, and not just consisting of only a Sobek and a fenris in this case. It would also explain why it never tried to jump out and faced hte Sathanas- because it could not do so. It fits...too nicely, in fact. :/

[/strange thought process]

If the Colossus was declared a failure and continued in secret, you'd expect at least a modicum of surprise from from your wingmen at its operational use after The 8th Wonder.

Also the costs of moving a 5km long metal box would still be pretty heavy, with regards as to using it as a decoy; you'd also need to selectively recalibrate all GTVA vessels sensors to detect all the subsystems like comms, nav, etc that weren't physically present.

WeatherOp wrote:Also, if it is so easy to slip a pilot into the NTF to spy, would it be that much harder to do it with the GTVA?

Considering that people like Roemig were still defecting to the NTF after the start of the main campaigm, not hard at all.

Once in the same system as the incomplete Colossus even a single Fenris cruiser like the Trinity could cause a hell of a lot of damage by shooting into parts of the Colossus that hadn't been armoured yet.

Psstt...that mission is called "The Sixth Wonder".

Also, that theory doesn't really hold water, Kara: think about it for a bit. We saw enough freighters alone to mob an Orion to death in the Colossus cutscene. Security must be equally formidible, perhaps involving a whole battlegroup or fleet. These ships would be arguably also be the ones that are assigned to the Colossus on a permanent basis, and therefore be the ones at the end of cutscene. That puts at least two destroyers and three corvettes on the site at all times.

ngtm1r wrote:Psstt...that mission is called "The Sixth Wonder".

Also, that theory doesn't really hold water, Kara: think about it for a bit. We saw enough freighters alone to mob an Orion to death in the Colossus cutscene. Security must be equally formidible, perhaps involving a whole battlegroup or fleet. These ships would be arguably also be the ones that are assigned to the Colossus on a permanent basis, and therefore be the ones at the end of cutscene. That puts at least two destroyers and three corvettes on the site at all times.

boll##ks. Just cause there are freighters present doesn't imply that there would be ANY capships present. I don't see how you could possibly be drawing that conclusion at all.

Some how I can't see the GTVA justifying keeping an entire fleet sitting around nursemaiding the Colossus when they are fighting a war against the NTF and aren't winning.

Sure there would probably be fleet assets in the system but they'd have to warm up their jump engines and leap in (by which time the Fenris could be long gone).

ngtm1r wrote:Psstt...that mission is called "The Sixth Wonder".

You saw noooothing...

karajorma wrote: Some how I can't see the GTVA justifying keeping an entire fleet sitting around nursemaiding the Colossus when they are fighting a war against the NTF and aren't winning.

They kept the Aquitaine, Psamtik, Carthage, Dashor, Vigilant, and Bastion sitting around to absolutely no purpose for 17 months of that conflict. At minimum.

Not really, it's standard military proceedure. Why build one when you can build TWO!

The first one is almost always the prototype and the show piece, the second is either "back-up" or the "real deal"...

ngtm1r wrote: They kept the Aquitaine, Psamtik, Carthage, Dashor, Vigilant, and Bastion sitting around to absolutely no purpose for 17 months of that conflict. At minimum.

how'd ya figure ? Just 'cos they weren't fighting in the Deneb refion doesn't mean they weren't doing anything. Also, it's suggested in the first brief the Aquatane is either new or undergoing a refit (when the voice over dude talks about squads being bumped from Orions to hecates)

I'd agree that the Aquitaine was probably new at the start of the game. If the Hecates were being introduced at that time, it would explain why the NTF didn't have any. It'd also make sense that when the rebellion started, the GTVA would step up the schedules for construction and deployment of new ships. Nothing like a good war for advances in technology.

Going back to something said eariler, I don't thik there's any way Bosch didn't know about the Colossus. It's not at all suprising that a pilot wouldn't know much, if anything, about a secret project, but a high ranking Admiral and commander of an entire Terran fleet would certainly know that it was in the works. There's some question of timing, maybe, but Bosch had to have known about it. The fact that the Iceni is built to run blockades (or the Colossus) fits with that foreknowledge pretty well.

Theres no evidence that bosh didnt just "promote himself" to admiral when he formed the NTF.

I don't think a non-admiral would have control of a force large enough to threaten the GTVA.

I think it's more likely, in the realms of storytelling, that Bosch was an admiral rather than making himself one. Because the latter is really unnecessarily convuluted for a piece of unstated background info, isn't it?

The degree of plausibility is moot. Bosch was in charge of a fleet, which means he was at least an admiral before starting the rebellion.

Eighteen months ago, Admiral Aken Bosch, commander of the GTVA 6th Fleet, launched a violent military coup in the Polaris system. Within weeks, a regional domino effect also toppled the governments of Regulus and Sirius, all swearing allegiance to Bosch and his Neo-Terran Front.