The Ur-Quan Masters Discussion Forum

I think I am seeing a plot hole, but I want to double-check. Anyway here goes!!!          

When you reach the Chmmr star base you get this report

---- REPORT FROM ORBIT ----

WE HAVE EXPLORED THE INTERIOR OF
THE STARBASE AND FOUND IT
ABANDONED.

COMPUTER RECORDS SHOW THAT THE
UR-QUAN PUT THE STARBASE IN ORBIT
AROUND THIS WORLD AFTER DEFEATING
THE CHENJESU AND MMRNMHRM.
FROM WHAT WE CAN DETERMINE, THE
CHENJESU AND MMRNMHRM WHO WERE
ASSIGNED TO THIS BASE SET UP
MINDLESS ROBOTS TO RUN THE
STATION, AND THEN SOMEHOW RETURNED
TO THE SURFACE OF THEIR PLANET,
PENETRATING THE SLAVE SHIELD!

FURTHER ANALYSIS OF THE STARBASE'S
DATABANKS SHOW THAT THE CHENJESU
AND MMRNMHRM WERE EXPLORING
SYNTHESIS SCHEMES TO CREATE A
HYBRID RACE, HALF MMRNMHRM AND
HALF CHENJESU.

THE ROBOTS WHO RUN THIS STARBASE
ARE ARMED AND WILL NOT PERMIT US
TO SCAVENGE MATERIALS, SO WE ARE
RETURNING TO THE SHIP.

 ---- END OF TRANSMISSION ----

Now according to Commander Hayes the Star bases were to repair and refuel the Ur-Quan ships and Ur-quan allies. Now here is were I have the problem.  If an Ur-quan dreadnought or Ur-quan ally came to the star base (Which is very probable considering they had many “allies”) they would come to the same report as this one. (Apparently when the Chenjesu and Mmrnhrm they left many traces about would they were doing on the planet below.) The Ur-quan would find out about it and would probably stop the war temporarily because the Chmmr are now a threat. When you think about it the Chmmr are a VERY large threat, considering the fact that they are making a hybrid race AND can penetrate the slave shield. So it just seems weird that the Chenjesu and the Mmrnhrm would leave so much behind that would give hints to you. (And Ur-Quan dreadnoughts as well)

So is there a logical explanation for this all? If so then post away!    

(O-and-by-the-way) I think that this game is the best. It took be a while but I finally beat without the walkthroughs and now can beat it with my personal record of spring 2157.  
 

I don't think the Kzer-Za would stop a Doctrinal Conflict with their genetic twins to deal with some slaves that all went to their planet. If they needed to refuel, the robots would do it.
If anything, they'd speed their war to finish off the Kohr-Ah, then deal with the problem.

The Ur-Quan should've known or suspected that the Chenjesu and Mmrnmhrm were trying to make a hybrid. Why else would they have requested being slave-shielded together? To keep each other company? I think the Ur-Quan were not unaware of their schemes.

Penetrating the slave shield is a concern though, and I'm sure the Ur-Quan would be worried if they found out about it. However the war not only assured that the Ur-Quan wouldn't find out about it, but also meant that the Ur-Quan probably wouldn't care for the moment as they had bigger issues on their hand-equivalents. Even more so when it appears that the Chenjesu-Mmrnmhrm are more interested in staying on the planet then off it.

So in conclusion, I think the Ur-Quan might've done something about the slave-shield penetration if they had discovered it and not been fighting a war, but as it was they didn't know and didn't care.

The synthesis is not a problem for the Ur-Quan. Assuming they found out about it, and were aware of their intent, you're forgetting one thing. It was to take umpteen hundred years to complete the synthesis. The Ur-Quan just plain didn't feel threatened by a race that would re-emerge long after the current doctrinal wars were complete.

"Destroy the Chenjesu / Mmrnmhrm love child" was probably on their to-do list for AFTER the war.

You guys brought up some very valid points,but I personally think that that theory has holes in it.

1. How do the Ur-Quan know that the two races combining together will take that long - and how do they know that someone won't use a sun device?

2. How do the Ur-Quan know that the Chenjesu and Mmrnmhrm won't send a few of them OUT of the slave shield and gather info on the doctrinal war. Thus when the few scouts find out the result they free the Earthlings, Syreen and all the races that are shielded.  If you look at the 3do vidoe then you know that the earthings were ready to fight. Warships were taking off the second the shield was down and I am sure other races were like that. (ok maybe not the Spathi!!!)

The Chenjesu and MmrnMhrm didn't know that the Ur-Quan were going to be in a doctrinal conflict, so this needs to be taken into account to show their thought processes.

It's possible that the robots mimic MmrnMhrm to a high degree, and that they would do the work of refuelling.  Also, knowing that the Ur-Quan dislike talking with other sentient species, they wouldn't have to make the robots able to talk.  The biggest problems lie with the Ilwrath who were supposed to guard procyon.  The Ilwrath ended up leaving for the Pkunk sphere, but there was no gaurantee that they wouldn't check up on the starbase some day.  Maybe the Ilwrath also refrain from speaking with sentient species when they aren't allowed to murder them?

The worst part of the Chenjesu/MmrnMhrm plan was that the Ur-Quan restocked the Earth station with new crewmembers when they resupplied it (every five years).  If the Ur-Quan do this on a cycle based upon the life expectancy of the fallow race, then it _might_ have been longer than the 55 or 35 years needed for the process, but not likely.

So, the Chenjesu/MmrnMhrm were either poor tactical planners, they knew that they wouldn't be discovered, or it's a bonafied plot-hole.

Regarding the Ilwrath, I think it might be likely that the Chenjesu thought they weren't a threat. I mean, the Ilwrath only interact with other races to destroy them, they are hardly going to drop in on a social call. Look at how poorly they fared in our solar system. It is possible that some particulary bright Chenjesu pscychologist profiled the Ilwrath, classing them as non-threatening to the plan.

As for the refueling, as C-20 mentioned the Quan stocked the human base every five years, presumably removing the oldest people, and sending up freshmen (I doubt they emptied the whole bloody thing every five years...). But the M:bots don't, as far as we know, age, and the Chenjesu are chrystalline and may age veeery slowly. So it is plausible that they wouldn't have to restock the place for a long time.

Or there could have been a group of volunteers, who travelled back up to the base every time they knew the Quan were scheduled to arrive. I doubt the Quan woudl pay much attention if the Chenjesu or M:bots changed a bit in appearance over the years..

Of course, this relies on the Chhmr actually being able to move when halfway through the process...

Considering the motion of that elevator thingy when you broadcast through the shield, it is quite plausible that they can move.

I do support the idea that they would rely on the robots for refueling the dreads -- UQ would probably send in a fuel requisition code, robots would reply, perhaps with a mmrnmhrm face on the comm signal, and send out the fuel pods. UQ leave.

If they wanted to talk to someone different, they would probably do it via comm. In that case, the name of the game is digital signal processing. Make up a simulation of a Chenjesu or Mmrnmhrm for the visual. For robots and crystals it's probably a lot easier than for humans, what with our soft parts and textures.

The chances that the UQ would actually board seem very small indeed.

It could be that the chmmr looked for loop holes in the slave agreement. Correct me if I am wrong but they could have decided to fulfill the agreement only adhering to the agreement.
The slave agreement is VERY simple.

Stay in the slave shield.
Keep the star base operational.

I have not seen any rule against going back to the slave shielded planet or making a hybrid species. So, the species that make up the chmmr, with their logic most likely thought it was acceptable. They also kept the base running with the "mindless" robots. Also since they knew the Ur-Quan did not want to wipe them out they could say it would kill them if they try to put them back on the starbase.

BTW
The chmmr aren’t all that powerful.  I have been able to kill 2 chmmr avatars with a pkunk fury. It is rather difficult but it is doable. You haft to do a whole lot of strafing runs to kill off the butterflies then the ship is a sitting duck. The avatars point defense goes for the closest object and if you do that right it will always be the bullets you fire.  ;D

So where did you find that simple slave agreement? I'll agree that I haven't seen any rules against making a hybrid species under the shield, but then again I don't think that means very much as I have not seen ANY rules at all. If perchance you are in possession of a document entitled "Ur-Quan slave laws - A binding contract" please feel free to post it ;)

I got it from the hours i spent playing the game.

basicly i got the "keep the starbase in shape" from the first conversations you have with the starbase commander. And the "stay under the slave shield" I got from the many conversations i had with ur-qaun ships before i killed them.

I found it. it was in the "limited release" verson  of the original game. a very rare version only one in existance and i have it.
here are the slave laws from that version.


-------------------------------------------------------

Ur-Quan slave laws - A binding contract

Stay in the slave shield.
Keep the star base operational.

Ur-Quan Lord ______________

SlaveRace Name____________
SlaveRace Leader___________
SlaveRace E-mail___________

Touche.  ;D

Kings to you Lukipela

(reference to "count of monty cristo")

Even if they are obeying the slave laws through a technicality, I think the fact that they were capable of breaching the shield would be enough for the Ur-Quan to be worried.  The Chenjesu will have realized this.  

Here's what bioslayer was talking about:

In all probability, the ilwrath would've noticed the whole 'hey, look, they're aren't any chenjesu or mrmnhrmn on this starbase!'.  They do, afterall, seem to be quite capable of sensing you when you fly in.

But lets assume they went to the starbase, and found it deserted.  What can they do?  It's not like they know how to get through a slaveshield, so going down there isn't happening.  Blowing up an abandoned starbase isn't going to impress anyone.  So, they could go and tell the ur-quan.  But if that happens, the ur-quan might go and look around, and have no very not nice things to say about how the ilwrath have been handling their duties.  The whole 'we were off murdering birdies instead of guarding these starbases like you told us to' likely won't go over to well.  So why disturb the status quo?


As for the ur-quan themselves - well, even if they knew, they aren't going to drop everything and go blow up the planet.  If anything, the ur-quan show clearly that everything else is second priority to the doctrinal wars.  The thraddash attack, and instead of going to the thraddash homeworld, which is practically next door, they just shoot any of them who interfere.  None of the thralls seem to have any supervision whatsoever.  Heck, even when a human shows up, outside the slave shield in direct violation of the oath of fealty, in a precursor battleship no less, often with a fleet of support vessels, and then begins to blow up every 'quan he find, they STILL don't take time off to go check on the humans.  Heck, they don't move even if the human has a dynarri on the ship, which is like the ur-quan equivalent of satan himself.

To be blunt, if repeated, vicious attacks by a human commanding a fleet of ships built by their own slaves, on board a precursor ship outfitted for combat, and carrying the greatest evil the universe has ever known isn't enough to make the ur-quan take a day off, an abandoned starbase probably ain't gonna make their to do list.

Quick edit:

Just got to remember, it's a question of priorities.  If you've ever spoke with a kzer-za after the doctrinal wars end, you know that they really, really don't want to see every race in the universe slaughtered.  Letting the chmmr merge and break the shield would be a failure of their place as great stewards of the universe.  Letting every race get slaughtered by the kohr-ah because they lost the war would be a much, much greater failure.  Risking a smaller failure to focus on preventing the greatest failure possible isn't such bad tactical thinking.

Consider this:

1. The Ur-Quan were too powerful to be stopped when they had the Sa-Matra. That is reason enough for them not to care.

2. They were busy with the Doctrinal Conflict (which also might mean they did not check the starbase regularly).

3. The Ur-Quan would unlikely care that some race went from a starbase to their planet. That doesn't necessarily mean they can come out again.

4. There is little reason for the Ur-Quan to be interested in the Chenjesu/Mmrnmhrm experiment to make a hybrid race.

What makes you think the Ur-Quan knew of the Sun Device or even could have imagined it could be used in fusing two races together?

Third term in the slave agreement was that the enslaved race is not allowed to have spaceships. The Ilwrath captain that enters Sol once you've investigated the moonbase says that this is 'in direct violation of the Oath of Fealty', I think.


They probably negletted the mainteinance of all starbases, judging by the condition of Earth's, and there's nothing to suggest that they would have bothered to check on them otherwise (on a second thought, did they maintain the Syreen starbase? That is near enought to them that they could have done that, as opposed to the Earthling and Chenjesu/Mrhrwhatever starbases that were on the other side of the quadrand).


Not necessarily, but if I were the Ur-Quan, I'd check to make sure. The slave shields were supposed to be unpenetratable without Ur-Quan level tech (then again, the Spathi managed to slave shield themselves, so...).

I feel that points 1 and 4 are valid, and that the Ur-Quan most likely didn't know about the sun device.

I find myself agreeing also with AnonomouSpathi's points.

Also, I haven't talked to the Chmmr myself (got bored of the normal game mode before getting to that point, and I know most of the plot anyways since I've done a lot of reading in the forums), but did they indeed know of the Doctrinal Conflict?

Hey! Spathi are smart! They got from bronze age to "today" only in 3 centuries! (or something like that...), bad example to deny the shield point.
Other than that, did you forget something? The ur-quan don't want to anihilate other races unless nessecery to do so. When they will think that the chmmr will be a threat, they will. The only race they would fear of, is the Utwig. They have the bomb. Hmm wait, the bomb wasn't strong enough to destroy the sa-matra until the chmmr put some crystal-tech there. But what are the odds that the bomb from one side of the quardent will get to the other?
(sorry for my bad english, I am kind of sleepy right now)

I don't deny the spathi are smart. I just don't think they are advanced enought to understand really complex Ur-Quan tech. And they figure out how to create slave shields in a couple of years by studying the Earth's shield, and the Chenjesu/Mrhrhwhatever could penetrate them after a similar amount of time (presumably). Now that I think of it, the shields must be low-tech by Ur-Quan standards. With their hundreds of thousands of years of spacefaring, they should be able to make something that is harder to figure out...

As for your other point, I don't think the Kzer-Za thought anyone in the quadrand as a much of a threath expect the Kohr-Ah, to which they were hopelessly outnumbered after the costly Alliance-Hierarchy war (and did the Kzer-Za know of the Utwig/Supox? I remember that they had encountered only Kohr-Ah vessels, not the Kzer-Za).

Well, the Spathi are clearly smart enough to duplicate a slave shield, because they DO duplicate one.

Arguing to the contrary is like saying, "There is no conceivable power source strong enough that it could power the Death Star's superlaser, therefore the Death Star's superlaser can't fire." despite that we see such a thing happen in the movie (note, someone I know in a different forum made this argument).

As far as space ships and the slave shield agreement:
Suppose it was just being off-planet that was a violation. Not having a space ship.

It does seem that the Ur-Quan confiscated the syreen ships, but confiscating the military hardware is not exactly the same as saying you aren't allowed to have vehicles capable of traversing space... as long as you don't actually use them to traverse space.

IT does seem that slave shielded races are not allowed to have ships except for maybe small shuttles ( Landers ) that cant go from planet to planet. otherwise earths starbase would not have needed radioactives.  

Now here is a few other possible plot holes.
If they are not allowed to have ships why are the star bases able to make them?
and why can earths starbase be able to make ships when the syreens apparently cant?
and why didnt the earths starbase make a ship to go get the radioactives themselves?
and why would anyone be willing to join into alliance with a group named the empire of BioSlayer?

That explains why the Ur-Quan don't notice or care, but it's not the most important issue.  Unless the Ur-Quan told the Chenjesu that they should remain on the planet "because our genocidal bretheren are coming, and we won't be able to watch you for about 24 years.", then they should have expected the Ur-Quan to make regular checkups.  
That reminds me: the 2nd Doctrinal war must have started sometime between 3 and 8 years before the start of SC2 (the Earth station had been getting regular resupplies until 8 years ago).  That means that the Chenjesu somehow fooled the Ur-Quan for at least 12 years before the Kohr-Ah showed up.  Anyone willing to make an SC2 timeline so we can sort things like this out?

Hayes: Ur-Quan slave law requires that we maintain an orbital space platform
to assist Hierarchy vessels which are in need of repairs or fuel.

<sexist pig>Chicks can't build starships</sexist pig> ::)  Really?  Umm  Maybe every races' oath of fealty is different, and the Ur-Quan were willing to let the Syreen have a Spacestation just for fun, but it didn't have to do any refueling or repairing of hierarchy ships.  More likely:  It can, but Earth is a better strategic point to amass a force.  Beatlgeuse is a little too close to the Ur-Quan sphere.

They thought that the moonbase was still inhabited, and didn't want to violate the slave laws ("Submit or Die").


Ulp! Well... you're the one with the big starship.

Well, first off, the Earth starbase is the center of operations for your empire, and all allies send their captains there, not the Gaia starbase. Having all your allies send their captains to every friendly starbase you discover could cause them to spread their captains thin. Hence their inability to build non-Syreen ships.

Second, the Syreens may not have the crew to recrew your ship (and even if they do, their crew may be too much of a ... distraction). Hence their conceivable inability to recrew you.

Third, the Syreens have presumably been as neglected as Earth's starbase and may not have the resources to produce fuel or upgrades for your ship (or to build any of their ships) anyway. And since you don't offload minerals to them, they can't do much for you.

It would be neat though, if you could offload minerals at their base and then have them refuel you, upgrade your ship, or build Penetrators.

No, the real reason only the earth starbase can build stuff is because you brought only one set of precursor fabrication tech with you from Vela.

Remember the beginning of the game where Hayes takes a couple-week break to incorporate the precursor tech into the starbase?

Yeah, now you remember.

But you should still be able to refuel (though not recrew) at Betelgeuse.

Ah, just reread it. I was under the impression that the engineers modified the ship to comply with the station's specs, not vice versa (I think the added warp-escape is what made me think that).

I think i know how the chmmr knew they would be safe for the amount of years they needed.

They spoke the words.

and the ur-quan answered

Bioslayer wins a gold star!  The more I read through the Chmmr dialog on PNF, the more I think that's correct.  Unfortunately, they don't tell you to say the words like the Pkunk and Melnorme do, but the Chmmr do know about the Kohr-Ah (possibly even if you haven't met the Kohr-Ah yet).  So, they knew the Kohr-Ah were coming, but didn't know that it would be so soon.  They deduced that the Ur-Quan Kzer-Za would stay in the area for a while, but would eventually continue on their Path of Now and Forever, leaving the Chenjesu and MmrnMhrm to do whatever they pleased.

what intrests me, is that the hybrid race had to be planned out, before they went under the shield. if i remember correctly, commander hayes says he has no way to contact the earths surface. so what ever plans the m-bots and crystal dudes made, had to have been planned out before they got shielded. maybe they thought of this as as a backup plan, in case we lost. wich we did. so when do you think they came to the conclusion that combining races, would benefit the stagnet m-bots, and also unleash the avatar, to match in battle, the ur-quan? makes me wonder why they felt it neccesary to keep us humans out of the loop. what else are they hiding?


parinoid thoughts by:
~DEFIANT

Now what i find interesting is that the chmmr avatar is better at killing old alliance ships then the old battle thralls ships. and is very poorly designed to attack the sa-matra. one of the better ships to kill the sa-matra is the pkunk fury.

maybe they have plans to take over the galaxy?

or do they have more evil desires?

Remember, we never see the Sa-Matra in combat; we only see the asteroid shell around it.
We know that the Sa-Matra is not firing those weapons since once you take out the shield generators, the defenses stop respawning.

Defiant, I don't see what's messed up -- the communications lines were cut towards the end of the war.

The simplest reason why the Syreen can't build ships is because you don't offload resources to them and they have no way to mine planets for extra resources themselves. But consider this: when the Kzer-Za conquered Earth they confiscated the technical data necessary to construct Earthling Cruisers. The only reason why they can be built at all is because one of the Starbase personnel made secret copies of the data (you might recall that conversation with Hayes).

Considering that the Syreen chose to be slave-shielded, I don't think it's wrong to assume that they had the necessary data to build their ships taken away as well. That's why they need you to actually go and physically bring them ships. Otherwise it really would be as easy as giving them resources, etc.

the communications lines were cut towards the end of the war.

oh yhea! i forgot about that. even so, did both races, on a moments notice, come to the conlusion, that combining there races, would stop the ur-quan. id like to think that "the process" was thought out, long before the war was lost.

i make such a statement with these facts:

both races, both with high intelligence, would not make a hasty judement, that might not work. or worse yet, destroy both races out right. combining one race with another, would need to be researched, planed, and then carried out. research, taking alot of time. i would suppose that they might need to keep it a secret, in the event the we lose the war. most likely, to prevent its knowlege coming to light. all im saying is that it is possible that it was thought out, not just spur of the moment.

~DEFIANT

One thing that is being overlooked is that it may have taken the Mmrnmhrm and the Chenjesu years to determine if they were indeed compatible with each other.

How many years went by before you came back from Unzervault? At least 20, right?

My guess is that the Mmrnmhrm and the Chenjesu decided to be slave shield together so that they could jointly work on a plan to deal with the Sa-Matra, which the Chenjesu learned about when their Broodhomes were decimated.

Only after years of planning did they come up with the synthesis of a new species (amongst many other plans) as they were able to study each other and determine that there was indeed a compatibility.

So my guess is that the synthesis of a new species was not discovered until after they were slave shielded on the same planet.

There is also the point about them leaving evidence at the Starbase about what was going on - who knows how long they'd been gone from the Starbase? They could have left the day before you arrived for all we know.

I'm sure while they were there they could easily hide it from the Ur-Quan (and that is why there was evidence in the computers), but after the Ur-Quan missed refueling the Starbase (Procyon is farther away than Sol) a few times and the Ilwrath stopped flying through their systems (the Mmrnmhrm and Chenjesu were probably no fun to them since they probably didn't respond to the Ilwrath threats early on) they probably started to think that they could take a chance and leave the station. Maybe they could say (if the Ur-Quan indeed show up) that they ran out of power and the Mmrnmhrm and Chenjesu manning the Starbase perished. Maybe the Ur-Quan would buy it, maybe not, but I'm sure they weighed the risks and decided that it was worth trying to perform the merging at all costs.

Matt

There are two problems with that theory that I see.

1. How do we know that the Chenjesu and Mmrnmhrm require oxygen? Or what is their "food" or "water" that they need to surive. They might be able to survive longer then us considering they most likely don't have to "waste" radioactives on the oxygen system.

2. When you go to Procyon before you send the Ilwrath away, it looks like a homeworld. So of the Ilwrath ships there at the slave shielded planet, (Lets just say a hundred thousand) I will assume that those ships need food supplies, oxygen (assuming the IIwrath need it) and fuel. They can't repenish their supplys on the slave shielded world - So were do they do it? Well how about that Space Station built mostly for them. When you think about it, don't you think that even 1 curious IIwrath would venture in the space station.  What does he find? Well he finds the same thing that your team found.

Another thing - I have to agree with Defiant about the Chmmr leaving us out of the loop. I  mean they could have freed us or at the very least informed us of what they were doing.

O-Well *sigh*  More thoughts from FalconMWC

Go to Orz space, stay in 1 of the system for sometime and check what happens. Thats right, ships leave and enter the system! Same with the Ilwrath, they patrol there and the chenjesu and m:bots aren't instresting them.

game wise, yes, your right. but we have to imagine that this universe is real, and that all logic that applies in our *real* universe, also applies there as well.

so... wouldnt it be logical to assume that the illwraith, who are stationed here, patroling chenjesu space, check up on our crystal firends. if not just to get more fuel and repairs.

of course maybe they did check up on them. found out no ones home to fix/fuel there ships, and just didnt care. theyve got bigger aliens to sacrifice. namely the pkunk.

~DEFIANT

From what I recall, the Chenjesu homeworld doesn't have an atmosphere. I also remember reading somewhere (the manual?) that the Chenjesu evolved as photo/chemovores. So they feed off of light and... chemicals of some sort. And they apparently don't need oxygen.

As for the Mmrnmhrm... I dunno. I don't think that information's given anywhere.

If I were a IIwrath (Which of course I am not so this is just guessing)  ;)  Anything I saw weird at the base I would notify the ur-quan for. Probaly just another torture victim for their gods.  

I still would think that the IIwrath would come to the conclusion that the Chenjesu and Mmrnmhrm are a real threat!  I mean, they have better ships (even the old ones) and can penetrate the slave shield easy.
So as a IIwrath I would see the Chenjesu and Mmrnmhrm as a  major threat to their life as well as a chance to prove themselves to their gods.

The Mmrnmhrm world was airless.

http://www.classicgaming.com/starcontrol/scwc/species/mmrnmhrm.htm

Chenjesu World couldn't have been without an atmosphere because they evolved their piezo-electric properties into a form of electrical arc (for exciting & bending other piezo electric crystals: tool use).  Vaccuum is one of the best resistors of electrical arcs (please correct if wrong, electro-physics was 11 years ago).  At least the ship has an atmosphere; you can see the arc, which means it is exciting some medium.

My mistake; just checked:  Procyon in SC2 game is indeed a vacuum with -211C temperature.  I wonder if the Chenjesu emit their own field of particles that the electrons then excite...  they'd be like crystal fountains with Procyon being the source.  Injesting crystaline chemicals at their base, and expelling the waste in a cloud/mist around themselves, which they can use to extend electric arcs.

Perhaps Procyon II had a thinner atmosphere and was not necessarily airless.  All planetary atmospheres where compared to an Earth standard and where (apparently) rounded to the nearest whole number.  

Therefore, if Procyon had less than fifty percent of the Earth standard it would be rounded down to zero.  There would still be a electrically conductive medium, even though the world is considered airless.

Electrons can be transmited without some form of medium. the thing your your stairing into proves that. (unless you have a lcd monitor) but it is true that there must be some form of medium if you can see the arch.



now the real question we must all consider is: are we geeks?
we spend our time finding holes and plot holes in a game that hasn't been on the shelves for a decade. The fact that someone has found a physics inconsistancy that pertains to the image of a melee control window with sparks in it while the race lives i vacume, is kinda sad.

This Geek Salutes You!

I think the answer to your question is

YES

This is something I happened to notice no one brought up...

The humans and the chenjesu were allies, perhaps the note was only accessable by the humans and other alliance members. A password of symbols perhaps? $@%^@@ could have accessed some sort of encrypted file that told of their plans to return to the planet and fuse together.

The Illwrath etc. are incapable of knowing this password, and so, they just assume they disappeared or possibly were killed. I'm sure the Ur-Quan are aware there are still millions of sentient species free. Perhaps they would assume their demise at the hands of the Kohr-ah.

The chenjesu were also the most wise of all the races, perhaps this was planned from the beginning. The same way they fused their crystal tech with the Utwig bomb...

They KNEW they could join and be one....

Just my two cents...

<Sc3-thing request="dont-yell">
Lets continue with this one.
Remember sc3 when the dakakapookpook(or whatever it was)
told you the chmmr are the eternal1 summoning device? Here is a thought. Maybe they DID plane it after all. Who wins the most? The chmmr ofcourse. They "destroyed" a precurser race- m:bots and got more power. The ur-quan "golden days of power" are over. And ofcourse they rule the galaxy. Maybe they could have beaten the ur-quan in the first war, but then the koar-ah still have power.
What I am saying is that the eternal ones in sc3 want that no other race will become like them, so anyone who gets near, dies. Maybe the chenjesu are their pawns. Maybe not.

</Sc3-thing>

Just my 2 NIS with really bad english.

Problem: that theory assumes that the Chmmr were able to form intentions prior to their creation.