Haven sector United against League

Roguevictory wrote:

hanuman wrote:
I should have been more clear. What I meant was that my hypothetical defector will inform the Alliance about the existence and location of Darius, at which point the Alliance will swoop down and eliminate the MA leadership on-planet. At that point, I hypothesize that the Factor's partners will pull their heads in and might even decide to limit their plans for galaxy-wide domination to a more local and acceptable (to the Alliance and other newly-emerged powers) scale...

Of course, himself being himself, I suspect to wait another ten years only to find out I was completely wrong

The thing is regardless of what happens to Darius the RF plan is still viable and was based on taking centuries from the beginning of the RF's rise based on what has been written about the subject.

Not so. The entire MAlign scientific complex has been transfered to Darius, as well as its hidden leadership. Darius is where the Factor's future navy is being constructed, and where the MAlign is developing its future societal model. So Darius isn't simply incidental to the Factor's longterm plans, but rather THE most vital part upon which the success of the entire plan depends. Should Darius be taken out BEFORE the Factor's plans reach a critical point, that will severely impact those plans.

The question - given such a hypothetical scenario - becomes this, namely when that critical point would have been reached had the MA been able to proceed without the Alliance throwing a spanner in the works?

I agree that the plan would still be viable, as far as establishing a new star nation goes, but I'll argue that the Factor's imperial ambitions will be seriously curtailed. For one, it will no longer be able to depend on the sudden appearance of a brand new navy out of the blue at the time of its inception - a navy which, according to the original plan, would have been the most powerful and most advanced in the known galaxy. All other considerations aside, such a navy in the possession of a strong, stable and prosperous new star nation amidst the chaos and anarchy of a post-League collapse would have been a powerful inducement for fearful, imperiled small star nations to seek admission to the Factor (or at least, some kind of closer relationship).

Two pieces here.
One is that the RF is intended to proved the several nodes to which a lot of the systems in or under the control of the SL (like OFS protectorates) to link up in at least tradeing partnerships or military defensive alliances. They are not going to "take on" the GA, they are going to impliment a number of the Alignment initiatives in all sorts of areas like medical science, education, and social programs which will QUIETLY shift the initial RF members and their partners to the mindset and practices of the Alignment. Over a LONG time, the Alignment is going to gather actual control of all these systems but probably invisible managers providing no clear target for Beowulf, the GA or any body else to strike at if/when they become unhappy with the changes being implimented.

How do you take a wormhole for which you don't know the actual spatial co-ordinates in real space? We see that at least one of the shadow network has a blocking force (the Alignment end of the Torch Wormhole) and one semi- guarded one, that wormhole which "doesn't exist" for the system that Mannerheim is looking to quietly buy and is presently using (all the time) to conduct "maneuvers and training" and at which only some of the officers know what the actual plan is. Give all that has happened, it is sure that the Alignment is going to fortify their sides of all of the wormholes in the shadow network. Should anyone attempt to force entry, they will be faces with massive firepower. Probably the forces will approch the level of "internal" protection of several Manticore wormholes though nothing the size of the Junction protection with all those forts. More like the Talbott guard force and forts. IF NOBODY HAS THE STELLAR CARTARGRAPHY OF WHERE THE ALIANCE WORMHLE TERMINI ARE (LET ALONE DARIUS) NOBODY IS GOING TO BE ABLE TO ATTEMPT TO TAKE THOSE TERMINI WITHOUT GOING THROUGH THE WORMHOLES FROM THE NON-ALIGNMENT END. NOT RECOMMENDED.
It is going to take the GA or allies getting intelligence as to where the Alignment ends of a couple of wormholes are and then taking those by conventional attack after getting there by hyperspace. Sending a scout- even a squadron of BCs as a scout force- is going to be tricky to 1) confirm the info is correct, 2) deterimine what is the "present" size and composition of the "internal" guard force, and then 3) gathering an attacking and follow-on logistic/support force to secure the wormhole once it is taken.