Why was the Aurora targeted?

[Jhonny G]

So I finished the game and read all PDAs I was able to find, but there's one thing in particular that is unclear to me.. Why was the Aurora shot down in the first place?

From what I can gather it was clearly hit all the way out in space while attempting a slingshot maneuver around 4546B and doing long range scans. The captain of the Sunbeam even comments on a huge debris field from the Aurora shortly before they arrive at the planet.

Now the Sunbeam itself is only shot down after it broke atmosphere and was nearing the planet. Which makes sense since it's close enough to be a danger to the quarantine protocol.. But why would the Aurora be targeted out in space if they wanted to keep 4546B quarantined and possibly a secret?

Unless I'm missing something it seems like the Aurora would just have moved along with its primary mission and never landed on the planet in the first place if it hadn't been shot down.

[Roslyn]

The Aurora was MASSIVE so when in space it was slow. The Aurora was there to build or fix a phasegate it needed to go faster so it did a slingshot manuver but the back of the aurora got to close to the planet so the gun shot it down and hence how we got stuck on 4546B. I have only one question are there more than 1 precursor quarantine gun?

[Big Mad Wolf]

One gun can hardly cover the whole planet :D

[Kerbol]

Автор сообщения: Rusty Cage

The Aurora was MASSIVE so when in space it was slow. The Aurora was there to build or fix a phasegate it needed to go faster so it did a slingshot manuver but the back of the aurora got to close to the planet so the gun shot it down and hence how we got stuck on 4546B. I have only one question are there more than 1 precursor quarantine gun?

even if the aurora is massive in space teres no friction so it will only depend on engine power
and a slingshot manuver is done to save fuel no to go faster
hope this helps (-;

[Lady_Regret]

...their primary reason for going there was to use it to slingshot towards their final destination and save on fuel but since they were there anyway they had an alternative mission to enter a low orbit to search for signs of the Degassi that went missing near the same planet. If they found anything they were meant to actually go down and find any remains or tech which is why the Aurora was equiped with tools and vehicles designed for exploring on a water planet. So, they scanned...found evidence of the Degassi, moved in closer and bam...shot down.

[Pembroke]

As mentioned above the PDA scan suggests the platform seems to be "operating outside parameters". It has been there for centuries, maybe thousands of years, abandoned and without any maintenance from it's builders so maybe the AI has simply gone a bit awry in how it interprets its primary objective? To me it seems that the rule "shoot all ships within X range" is far easier to apply than "determine the motive and future plans of an unknown ship of unknown origin, and try to find out whether they manage to smuggle something from the planet up, and only shoot them then, and make the correct decision every time".

If the stakes are high enough the "heck, shoot'em down just to be sure" approach does have its merits. I mean, what would *we* do if a potential pandemic disease broke out in some area? Presumably we'd have the military guarding the place, so what would happen if someone from the *outside* tried to break *inside* and he wouldn't react to or obey any commands to stop?

Or, if you don't want to make the aliens as pragmatically cynical as we humans , then maybe there's a simple signal an inbound ship could have just send to be identified as a friendly science vessel authorized to study the planet and approach safely, and both the creators and any space-faring civilizations they knew *then*, had this information. They just didn't expect the situation to outlast themselves and be complicated by later newbie-space-nations arriving.

[ashnagog]

the QEP kills anything in range, so aurora got in range, targeted, and shot down

[krawll]

I`m sorry for being so crude here but i think most of you guys are over thinking things here.
It is fairly possible that there might be gaps and unanswered questions in the lore of Subnautica ... It`s all just a made up story by the devs after all , not a real world.

The truth is that if the Aurora hadn`t been shot down , there wouldn`t be a Subnautica game for us to play. The sunbeam was shot down after breaking atmosphere simply because it was more spectacular for the player to watch an actual ship get shot down rather than just watching a beam of light get shot into space without the explosion that comes with it .

There has to have been times like these where the devs had to make a choice .
Do we make it so it makes sense to the story? OR... Do we make it so it`s cool to watch ?

It`s probably just as simple as that . OR maybe you guys already knew all this and are actually still trying to make sense of something that may never be answered ? Or am i missing something here ?

[theresejesu]

Автор сообщения: krawll

I`m sorry for being so crude here but i think most of you guys are over thinking things here.
It is fairly possible that there might be gaps and unanswered questions in the lore of Subnautica ... It`s all just a made up story by the devs after all , not a real world.

The truth is that if the Aurora hadn`t been shot down , there wouldn`t be a Subnautica game for us to play. The sunbeam was shot down after breaking atmosphere simply because it was more spectacular for the player to watch an actual ship get shot down rather than just watching a beam of light get shot into space without the explosion that comes with it .

There has to have been times like these where the devs had to make a choice .
Do we make it so it makes sense to the story? OR... Do we make it so it`s cool to watch ?

It`s probably just as simple as that . OR maybe you guys already knew all this and are actually still trying to make sense of something that may never be answered ? Or am i missing something here ?

Of course we know all this. lol It's a game.

But making sense of a story line helps immersion.

And when a developer chooses to go the harder route of making the story line work in all possible scenarios while giving you those moments that are cool to experience, then the game turns out better as a result.

Because there are two possible scenarios for the Sunbeam event, and they apparently contradict each other, it's a "why you do that?" moment regarding the story line. -why have the Sunbeam encounter a debri field they won't try to go through in one scenario, but not in the other?

It's simply an opportunity for the devs to learn how to do something better the next time. Keep stoylines inherently and intrinsically connected and consistent and you end up with a better game.

[Pembroke]

Автор сообщения: krawll

most of you guys are over thinking things here.

Hey, it's fun.

Besides, even if the original author hadn't had anything more special in mind than "looks cool", sometimes small accidental things can add up to something unexpected that actually makes sense. Finding such is even more fun.

[IMP_102]

I think the answer here is: it's a game.

If Aurora was really doing a sling shot then there was no reason for it to enter the atmosphere, it would have just started aero breaking. If Aurora was hit during the sling shot, then it wouldn't have crashed into planet, it would have just flew by on it's current trajectory.

[Sathra]

Well, not on its current trajectory as the energy release/conversion would impart momentum opposite to the impact point.
Unless it blew through the ship, which might result in the ship crashing into the planet. Due to gas/debris ejection (this would have more force due to extra junk and igniting atmosphere).

[Kerbol]

Автор сообщения: IMP_102

I think the answer here is: it's a game.

If Aurora was really doing a sling shot then there was no reason for it to enter the atmosphere, it would have just started aero breaking. If Aurora was hit during the sling shot, then it wouldn't have crashed into planet, it would have just flew by on it's current trajectory.

entering the atmosphere will not necesary start aerobraking it may have entered a part of the atmosphere so thin that it wouldnt had enought air to start aerobraking

[Lil Puppy]

The atmosphere of a planet extends much much farther out into space than we normally recognize, we don't know the alien parameters for shooting things.
Additionally, the one QEP covers the entire planet by utilizing the gravity slingshot technique that the Aurora is using but for different purposes (PDA entry).
Depending on the scanning technology, time delay, atmosphere density, water quantity, etc could require the Aurora to get within atmosphere to do any useful scanning.

The Aurora was hit in the front of the ship, you can clearly see that it is the damage point as the engine section is completely unscathed. The Aurora being a much larger ship is easier to hit in space than the Sunbeam which is barely a shuttle. If the Sunbeam would have been on the other side of the planet, it would have been shot down from space from an unknown direction. This indicates that their technology is very accurate in predicting orbital characteristics, atmospheric physics, and balistic trajectories.

Clearly the distance to target parameter is less than the distance to the nearest moon and going so close as to be hundreds of meters from the weapon itself. Anyway, any external entity interacting with the sphere of influence of that planet is going to be shot down.

[Luki]

I dont remember all events of the games but in below zero we see that an alien mind was trapped and searching for a body to get in idk how to say it in an other way but maybe the QEP shot down the aurora because the alien that was trapped in the cube thing needed a body to like be in and cure the disease some the QEP was maybe ordered to shot it down for search of survivors that would live and find the cube thing to transfer the alien and make a body for him but it never happened with the aueora survivors that would also explain why the aurora survived in some way

[Araynia]

Автор сообщения: Roslyn

The Aurora was MASSIVE so when in space it was slow. The Aurora was there to build or fix a phasegate it needed to go faster so it did a slingshot manuver but the back of the aurora got to close to the planet so the gun shot it down and hence how we got stuck on 4546B. I have only one question are there more than 1 precursor quarantine gun?

Then why did the *front* of the ship get shot? The back appears to be in-tact. It's the front that is damaged and mostly missing.