Hi Jonathan_S,
That's a clever idea on the SL's part, but again there's the time factor; by the time Sol found out and reacts, but given a round trip travel time of 6-8 weeks, the GA is already there.
One might argue the war is won at least as far as the verge and shells are concerned, when the mandarins and SLN have learned enough to stop sending TF's out to the shells and verge.
Two thirds of the SL have only LAC's apparently, with no indication of their number, age or capability of course.
The remaining third may have hyper capable units, but again no indication of numbers, age or capability, which as TheEmile pointed out, suits RFC down to the bone right now.
11 of the 12 RF happen to have hyper warship SDF's that collectively are rather impressive in the MAlign's view, ie probably larger than any other likely group of SDF's, NTM making even the SLN wary given its shrinking numbers.
RFC has also mentioned many SL members harbor ambitions where their neighbors are concerned, which is why some of their neighbors are also well armed, but others are or have been relying entirely on the SLN, and like the 5 foolish virgins in the moment of crisis can't borrow or rent from their neighbors.
"Who ya gonna call!"
I imagine lots of various situations will be covered in UH, at least in the background, but if I were the leadership of the four who've already presented my secession plebiscite results to Kolokoltsov, even before Beowulf has theirs, arranging for protection against the likely SL reaction would have been the first question the public would have asked at the town-hall equivalents, and be in place and visible before most rational voters would vote as they wished.
Which makes me wonder if some of these might be some of the RF, claiming the 'third way' leadership position, though most of them are holding back until after the EE violation to Beowulf, added to the GA's Mesa massacres when that news spreads through November.
We don't know how many hyper bridges there are now in the SL, there were only 5 in ~1900 PD; but that could easily be up to around 24 from how many we know about now [perhaps another 30-36 beyond the SL], especially with so many near the TQ, extrapolated across the whole SL, for an average of ~124 LY between them even though the textev generally mentions or implies something nearer 200 LY's apart.
That would mean somewhere between 8-12 days for a db to reach a wormhole to contact the RMN there.
Even without the heads up from Mike, I believe the RMN admiral would react positively to signs the SL is fragmenting, sending the best immediate deterrent he/she can from what's available, while requesting reinforcements to handle more such requests.
I wouldn't be surprised if we didn't have a scene where its getting desperate for the RMN in system when a couple of RHN SDP's etc arrive just like the cavalry to save the day, with reactions from CO's and officers in each navy etc.
Definitely very interesting times,
L
Jonathan_S wrote:Fox2! wrote:
So you have six weeks to six months until somebody pops a Manty merchanter. And six weeks after that for a half squadron of RMN DDs or a pair of CLs (or even CAs) show up, and as Leto Atriedes said after taking office on Arrakis, "Our Sublime Padishah Emperor has ordered me to assume control and settle all disputes".
Plus of course some of them have sufficient system defense forces to make it uneconomical for pirates to raid them. Even a handful of old-style LACs, used well, can make trolling for victims or trying a smash and grab of an orbital facility a high risk operation.
Even if the pirate wins expending multi-million dollar missiles not inexpensive CMs really cuts into the bottom line.
That said, there seem to be plenty of League and especially Protectorate systems that appear to have nothing more than maybe some traffic control and maybe search and rescue type ships; which could be ripe targets for pirates.
