Privateer idea

[Dragon]

The "something" could be a lot of things, the egg, the kilrathi superweapon that is destroying all those ships [aka, the egg].....

 

[RFBurns]

It isnt uncommon for governments to not tell everything to everybody. Its called "Need to Know Basis". Quite possibly Confed may have found other things at the Mars site that they closed down. Possibly something else other than a map that gave the indication of searching that area. The Kilrathi were unusually interested in that part of space, which if you look on the Gemini map, that sector is far from the Kilrathi boarder. And when two governments are at war, and there is something that one or the other side could use for its benefit, bet your afterburner they are going to try to find it before the other. During the time of Privateer, Confed was still at war with the Kilrathi. They are not going to just tell everyone, hey we might find something out here and have the enemy pick up on that. Obviously Confed knew of the Steltek when Monkhouse found the Mars site. Then the theories sprung up about the Steltek being around millions of years before Earth evolved into even being able to support life forms. Same goes with Kilrah. I would have to say the reasons for Confed not sending their own ships to explore that region was simply because they already tried and were loosing ships as well as the ES was. Since they needed every ship they had for the war, they relyed on the ES to map the sector. Even Tarin stated they were loosing ships. We know it wasnt the "egg" that was killing off all those ships, but it was the pirates and the Kilrathi doing all the trashing. Which brings up the possibility that even the pirates got wind of something being out there, otherwise why would they be there when they have bases strung out all over Gemini? Garavick, the lone ES privateer who got lost out there, probably saw that egg as it was passing thru that sector. Remember that egg was originally in the Troy sector as the begining of the game shows. It was just sitting there then it "woke up" after one of Brownhair's missles hit it. It must have flown off towards the derelict base via some other flight path other than the regular jump paths everyone else was using. That is when Garavick probably saw it and freaked out! In any event, Confed knew about the Steltek, that isnt a debate at all. Confed knew that they exsisted long before man, and that their civilization spanned the entire galaxy. They may or may not have known that the Steltek base was actually there, but I would bet that with all the evidence Confed confiscated after the closing of the Mars site, they did some more digging around and probably found other evidence indicating something may be in that sector. For all we know, Confed may have had a complete map like the two pieces we gather in the game, but stopped charting that sector simply because of the ship looses and the involvement of the war at that time. War tends to take up all your resources and attention, so they had the ES map the sector. Obviously others knew about the Steltek also, why would Monkhouse be captured on Palin and held prisoner there? It wasnt because of the blockade. He was prisoner there before the blockade took place, and the blockade was there for totally different reasons. Then when you pick up Monkhouse, you get chased down by the Kilrathi, and they say give him up or be destroyed. Seems pretty clear that more than Brownhair and Monkhouse knew about something being out there related to the Steltek. Im sorry Dragon, but the game says it itself. Maybe you are correct about Confed not knowing an actuall base was there, but you cannot say that they did not know anything at all just because it was a privateer that found the base. Remember, they had plenty of evidence from the Mars site long before they had the ES map that sector. Otherwise, why would they have the ES map it? Nothing there that would benefit Confed at all. Not even the Kilrathi would benefit from that sector so far away from their boarders. I think Tarin Cross hit the nail on the head when she questioned Brownhair about some secret agenda, but she didnt know since Confed did not tell her why they were mapping that part of Gemini. The whole point here is, Confed DID have some idea of something important to chart that sector. There is no question about that.

RFBurns