But the GTVA had portrayed itself as the great answer to the Shivans. The public did not listen to the calm and clinical debriefings of the GTVA's officers. It listened to the eyewitnesses who broke down into fits of dread and anguish when reminded of the shadows that had filled Capella's skies. This backlash was exacerbated by the difficult aftermath of Capella. The total population of Capella (250 million) was distributed evenly across the GTVA in a smooth and well-run diaspora. But the loss of the Capella system and its node connections had critical economic ramifications. The journey between Vega and Epsilon Pegasi was now a 5-jump trip instead of a simple 2-jump hop, increasing transit time and costs for outlying colonies in Mirfak, Adhara, and Procyon. Small increases in shipping costs, combined with the desperate need for commandeered civilian ships to help move and resupply the Capella refugees, led to a massive economic collapse that began in the outer systems but eventually shook the entire Terran half of the GTVA. The shipping troubles were only one cause - a general atmosphere of fear and insularity after Capella also contributed.

The hardest hit were the newest colonies and their vulnerable ecosystems. With shipping schedules, population sizes, and consistent offworldassistance disrupted, carefully balanced planetary ecologies broke down. At least two worlds were downgraded to 'marginally habitable' by massive ecosystem collapse: plankton die-offs, algae blooms, catastrophic crop failures, and worse. The citizens of these worlds had to be relocated in turn, leading to a chain-reaction economic and environmental crisis. Only Vasudan intervention prevented further disaster, but this came at its own price: massive debt amongst Terran worlds and widespread resentment at continued Vasudan prosperity.

Insurgencies in outlying systems, classified encounters, and corporate rebellions sparked a series of brush wars. The GTVA needed an ideological center to win the hearts and minds of its teetering citizens. Before his death, Admiral Petrarch provided this center: a return to Earth. Instead of Neo-Terra, the GTVA would earn the genuine article.This promise sustained the Terran elements of the GTVA for eighteen years, until the completion of Centaur Station and the Sol gate.

However, this came at the cost of an increasing break with the Vasudans. By the time of Centaur Station's commissioning ceremony, the Terran and Vasudan elements of the Security Council and High Command were barely in communication, President Demitri Toqueville was only marginally recognized by the Vasudan government, and diplomatic relations were frosty.", -1)

It was in this atmosphere of tension that the first probes into Sol were sent. GTVA High Command (or, more specifically, the Terran strategic elements) had drafted a set of contingency plans to deal with possible conditions on the far side of the portal. Contact by STL probe and transmission had been attempted but largely failed due to technical issues.

Initial probes confirmed one of the GTVA's more drastic fears: Sol had been overrun and completely amalgamated by a radical religious ideology called Ubuntu. This new party had completely removed the old GTA power structure, de-unified the three major colonies (Earth, Mars, and Jupiter), deprecated the military , decentralized the government, and left Sol completely vulnerable to Shivan incursion.

Furthermore, the appeal of the Ubuntu ideology was so great that GTVA sociopsychologists predicted massive conversion amongst a populace already yearning to abandon failed colony worlds and emigrate to Earth. The military might of the GTVA would be brought down by ideology once more.