SWM wrote:Sigs, it would be helpful if you explained what exactly you are trying to argue about. You started out arguing about what the Alignment's plans were. Since the Grand Alliance did not figure in those plans, any discussion about how the GA will react is irrelevant to the discussion of the Alignment plans. So, are we supposed to talk about what the Alignment was actually planning, or about what will happen now that those plans are trashed? If the former, please stop bringing the GA into the argument.
The way I see the initial MA plan for the RF, the one that had Manticore/Haven either destroyed,one occupied by other etc... it involved the collapse of the League and the MA using their newly constructed warships to destroy most or all shipyards not in RF hands and then use those same warships to force other core systems to join forces with the RF systems. This would involve a somewhat lengthy time period because the idea is not to for the MA to simply scare core worlds into joining the RF but to make them desperate and subservient enough to be willing to accept the leadership of the original RF members because the alternative would be worse. The reason I see as their initial plan calling for desperation is because they would surrender essentially their very independence for the security that the RF provides thus giving the RF and the MA the ability to put through any changes they may desire. As the RF fleet expands to offer the protection to new core systems which by then would be desperate for any protection whatsoever because of the actions of the MA. At that point they will not be arguing about division of power as long as the RF provides the ships of the wall to “protect” them from the unseen enemy.
Now that Manticore, Haven and Grayson are in fact allied and not destroyed their entire plan collapses. Basically, until the MA is destroyed any unexplained( and highly suspicious) mass disappearances of warships and/or attacks on core systems will in my opinion force the hand of Manticore/GA. Until the MA and their entire structure is destroyed the GA cannot and likely will not allow any large scale nation building, meaning that the GA will prevent the formation of large nations due to the fact that they do not have in-depth intelligence and they do not know who or what they are fighting against. This to me means that they will not allow the successor states to unite in numbers that might actually challenge the GA industrially and subsequently militarily.
My point is that their plan is as of the last book undoable, this means that the GA cannot and will allow significant number of core systems to join together to form a nation that can threaten them until the MA is destroyed.
As long as the GA can provide some sort of security for as many core systems as they can, they will prevent the RF from getting those systems desperate enough to be willing to sign off their freedom in exchange for security.
My read is that the MA wants total galactic domination in order to pursue their plans, if they wanted to just control humanity they could have become the power behind the bureaucracy of the League pretty easily without having to spend 600 years plotting and planning.
What the MA/RF planned and what they are actually going to get are two different things and the survival of the League in any shape or form hangs on the decision of not only the MA but of the GA.
