On FTL Lore: Why is the Rebel Flagship so important to the rebels?

[Evoxrus XV]

I mean like yeah we know it's pretty powerful and stuff considering everyone's hundreds of runs and having 1 to 5 victories. However, why is that Rebel Flagship so important that the Rebel lose if it dies?

I mean we literally had an almost infinite entire fleet chasing us that I am pretty sure about 3-8 of those rebel cruisers could crush us at once and replace the Rebel Flagship. And considering it's a fleet and there are even more massive ships wouldn't it be like a few hundred to a thousand over? It seems ridiculous to have your victory placed on only one ship.

So what if the Rebel Flagship dies? Wouldn't the fleet still be there and screw everyone over? I am sure after we beat the Flagship 1-3 Rebel ships can come in and clear us out. Why is one single but powerful ship so important to a Rebel Fleet when 4-8 Rebel ships can replace the power of the Flagship?

Also, usually by the time we defeat the Rebel Flagship isn't like all the repair checkpoints and planets around the sector 8 in control of the rebels since they defeated the Federation ships on each one of them? How does an entire fleet lose because one ship died when the entire sector except the base has been taken over? It doesn't make sense.

[Fregi]

The rebel flagship is like the government, and it is the only one of its kind. (asides from the flagship construction) Sure, the rest of the rebel ships are powerful, but none are as powerful as the rebel flagship. It is the rebel super weapon. Building one would be extremely expensive. You would know this if you finished the quest for the Federation Cruiser. They needed an extremely high amount of materials to construct their superweapon. With it gone, they have no choice but to surrender, as none of their ships are powerful enough to destroy the federation base.

Think of it as the rebels surrendered because they had nothing left that could destroy the main base.

[Evoxrus XV]

Fregi a écrit :

The rebel flagship is like the government, and it is the only one of its kind. (asides from the flagship construction) Sure, the rest of the rebel ships are powerful, but none are as powerful as the rebel flagship. It is the rebel super weapon. Building one would be extremely expensive. You would know this if you finished the quest for the Federation Cruiser. They needed an extremely high amount of materials to construct their superweapon. With it gone, they have no choice but to surrender, as none of their ships are powerful enough to destroy the federation base.

Think of it as the rebels surrendered because they had nothing left that could destroy the main base.

Hmmmm interesting. I did do the Federation Cruiser quest, it was expensive. But yeah I guess, so the FlagShip is their superweapon, still I mean if they had all those ships I can imagine like 10 of those ships being more powerful than the flagship, especially if each of those 10 rebel ships had a cloak or a drone or a special system for each. But I get your point.

[nobull]

Let me drop my two cent. The rebel has a highly volatile politic structure and the flagship serves as the only monarch.If the flagship falls , the rebels will split into different parts and fight each other to claim power.The player's ship carries the intel that can pinpoint the flagship from other superships , and eventually it becomes a assasin ship

[piehop7]

The leaders of the rebels are probably aboard the flagship. Sometimes upon encounter, the rebel ships say "Sorry, but it's orders" or something like that. If their boss dies, they don't really care. Also (maybe) some of those AI ships are linked to the flagship?

[Lord Of Dorkness]

There's also the fact that the flagship serves as the 'network hub' of a sort for the robotic auto-ships.

You take that central 'server' if you so will, and one of the rebellions most potent weapons all turn into expensive paper-weights adrift in space—and the human only rebellion simply don't have the man power to face the rest of the galaxy without them.

[NinjaDiner]

In my story, "Ghosts of the Federation," I try to address this. The issues that stood out to me were that there's some kind of intel you need to carry to the Federation base - why do we have to hand-deliver it? Is there no email in this future? - and that the key to defeating the Rebels is in destroying their flagship, which is also the only ship in the galaxy which is suddenly overrun by an AI as soon as its human crew dies. I figured both of these were connected: the Rebellion's ace in the hole is secretly a powerful AI, something single-handedly responsible both for shutting down the Federation's communication systems (mainly crippling their command structure and military, but secondarily meaning you need to physically carry the encrypted intel back to the base) and also for coordinating the whole Rebel fleet. The fact that you've discovered the existence of this powerful secret explains why SO MANY Rebels are chasing you down so doggedly.

[Evoxrus XV]

NinjaDiner a écrit :

In my story, "Ghosts of the Federation," I try to address this. The issues that stood out to me were that there's some kind of intel you need to carry to the Federation base - why do we have to hand-deliver it? Is there no email in this future? - and that the key to defeating the Rebels is in destroying their flagship, which is also the only ship in the galaxy which is suddenly overrun by an AI as soon as its human crew dies. I figured both of these were connected: the Rebellion's ace in the hole is secretly a powerful AI, something single-handedly responsible both for shutting down the Federation's communication systems (mainly crippling their command structure and military, but secondarily meaning you need to physically carry the encrypted intel back to the base) and also for coordinating the whole Rebel fleet. The fact that you've discovered the existence of this powerful secret explains why SO MANY Rebels are chasing you down so doggedly.

Hmmmm, this seems to be the most similar answer given by many and also the most valid one. It makes sense, a super powerful AI, rivaling that of GLADOS and EDI, is a secret weapon developed by the Rebels to cut online communications of the Federation as well as to power several AI drones. I have never run into any Federation drones so this makes sense.

It also makes sense that the Rebels lose out if all their drones die out and the Federation can finally communicate with each other easily to form attacks, maybe even access their own drones or super weapons. There must be a small amount of Rebels, probably 1/3rd or 1/2 the size of the Fedeation and the majority of their power comes from the drones and the Federation is massively crippled by lack of communication. Remove that and the Rebels are crushed. This seems like the best explanation of why the Flagship is so important. This is my head canon now. The drone thing seems realistic considering how the Flagship can summon a swarm of drones even if its drone system is destroyed.