Brigade XO wrote:Visagoth is an RF member. The Houdini plan was intended to remove (not butcher or expunge) all of the Alignment resources from Mesa before sinking the planet into chaos.
The final flourish of nuclear weapons that Albrect triggered would seem to have been part of the later plan for Mesa after getting the Alignment clear so as to very much muddy the waters about what had gone on.
We were told that Mesa with Manpower and many of the related companies was going to be used as a cover and misdirection, ultimately being sacrificed. It is possible that the last round of explosions was supposed to look like a selfie and genetic slave revolt which decapitated Mesa's leadership and took out much of it's ability to control anything and so leading to a bloodbath designed to be a civil war/revolution and essentialy killing off much of the population through the internal fighting and massive problems that the distruction would have had on the planets infrastructure.
Visagoth is still in control of it's end of the wormhole. It also has been a trade hub although it is not clear how it has rationalized it's connections with Mesa other than it can't control what the system on the other end of the wormhole has been doing. Even with Mesa in turmoil and SEM with a fleet holding the Mesa system, we don't know what the rest (the non-Mesa bound) traffic of that wormhole has been like. There probably has been a lot of traffic which only uses the wormhole and never gets close to the hyper-limit of Mesa. Same for the Visagoth end.
Ships come through to use the wormhole. They pay their transit fees, they deliver and receive cargo from the warehouses near the termini and just go on. How many would be searched by customs on either end if they are not going (nor publish intentions about going to Mesa) before the new crisis there? Visagoth is NOT caught up in what is going on at Mesa except as they will have to deal with shipping and now probably warships near the wormhole on their end. They can deal openly with SEM in reguard to what has happened and just move forward. It is not like Mike or the SEM is going to send ships into the Visagoth system hunting Mesa officials. They don't have to, any diplomatic staff or business people from Mesa on Visagoth will be looking for asylum if not for a fast ship away and Visagoth doesn't have to really do much beyond protest SEM's actions and not hand over any Mesa citizens that don't want to go back for fear of being entangled in Manpower and the whole genetic slavery issue.
Mesa is not really going to be an issue. It will simply be a mess. Lots of nukes will do this.
The Malign probably plans to keep its head down for a while. Let the League tear itself apart. Visigoth can basically be nice to the SEM but if it doesn't show support for joining, it can simply be "friendly."
That would be a good way to insert more agents into Manticore, Haven, etc.
When Step One of your plan lasts 500 years, Step Two will probably also be slow. Do more work on genetics. Publicly push the envelope somewhat more than Manticore or Beowulf wants. Not (publicly) enough to cause major problems. Focus on 'genetic defects' causing retardation...which seems legal but increase intelligence levels in general.
On some planets, use real manipulation as a form of bribery. Hey, your kids will be smarter, stronger, etc. Gradually bring in more planets, the further away from major centers the better.
