The GTVA entered the Second Shivan Incursion with the caution and contingent planning appropriate to second contact with a xenocidal alien species. The initial Alliance containment effort was overwhelmingly successful.

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. This decision was bolstered by GTVI's initial threat reassessment, placing the Shivans at technological parity with the GTVA.

This bold offensive strategy succeeded longer than pessimists had predicted, and the destruction of the Sathanas juggernaught was seen as analogous to the elimination of the Lucifer 32 years earlier. Shortly afterwards, Vasudan combat elements began to inflict severe damage on what were believed to be Shivan rear-area targets. True strategic victory against the Shivans appeared to be in sight.

But Shivan strategic organization did not collapse after the destruction of the Sathanas, as had been predicted. An overwhelming counterattack made it apparent that the true extent and capabilities of the Shivan species had been vastly underestimated. SOC recon elements supplied evidence that the nebula beyond the Knossos was perhaps only a perimeter element of Shivan space.

In the wake of the destruction of Capella, the Alliance was left reeling. In spite of a modestly successful evacuation effort under severe pressure, civilian confidence in the military was shattered by the sudden strategic turnabout. But the blow was felt on a deeper level.

Humanity, as a species, saw the destruction of Capella as a sign of its own cosmic insignificance. The Lost Generation's dreams of defeating the Shivans and mastering thirty-two-year-old fears were crushed. The Destroyers had brushed mankind aside like a tick and detonated a star with almost playful ease.

Broken, bleeding, and discouraged, suddenly terrified of the vast and impenetrable emptiness and the things waiting in its shadows, mankind turned its attention towards returning to its birthplace.