The Yawata strike was against military targets. Not one person died on Grayson because of where they placed their targets. If the people behind the Yawata strike had been willing to use WMDs on a planet the damage would have been insane.
Big challange with that one, about stuff that was addressed in the text. Oyster Bay was directed against military targets but we were clearly shown that the planners, while they took care not to end up dropping a KEW directly on any of the planets, clearly understood that there was going to be a lot of "collateral" damage from falling debris...and that was "just too bad". The reason they didn't hit Manticore, Griffon or Spinx with KEWs was because they thought that would raise the attack to a clear EE violation which MIGHT have had to draw the attention of the SL or at least the SLN which was nominally the enforcer to go after EE violators.
So, hundreds of thousands die in the ground along with the hundred of thousands of people on the three main Manticorain Space Stations (70+ km long structures) and all the building slips and other instilations and it is "just" an attack on military targets. By an unknown attacker in an undeclared war. Move along, nothing to see here.....
Grayson was only hit in and around Blackbird which was their primary shipbuilding and industrial area other than the clearly (mostly) civilian stations orbiting Grayson.
Why? Well, the Alignment didn't have the ships nor the munitions to hit ANY MORE TARGETS THAN THE DID- they just didn't have the ammunition. Otherwise they would have also going after anything that could build anyting in both Manticore and Grayson systems (and probably stuff around the Junction) PLUS they would have gone after multiple target locations in Haven.
But OB as configured was a rush job with PROTOTYPE series of TRAINING & Proof of Consept vessels (at least the Sharks with much of the ordence hung on pylons) and Ghosts, to "trim back" the Manticore and Grayson capasity to build ships/weapons (and most other stuff ) plus kill as much of the spaceborn population who did the work or supported those who did.
The Alignment clearly had decided that they needed to hammer Manticore and Grayson's orbital infrastructure to stop the flow of things needed to fight the war and presumed that Haven would then sweep in and take over (at massive cost in ships and people to Haven to do it) at least Manticore. Then the SLN was supposed to swarm out and take Haven---note that the timeing of Raging Justice would have put them getting to Manticore either just before or shortly after a 2nd BOM with Haven probably going for broke- a 2nd time- to take Manticore.
IF Haven had come back at Manticore instead - post OB- showing up in alliance with them, Fillerta's massive fleet come in either on just the remains of the Home Fleet plus possibley 8th Fleet OR on the remnants of both the Manticorian and Haven fleets that had just gone another round for taking/holding Manticore. Either way, Fillerta was going to bet his ass chewed- by the either the collected Manticore fleet or the survivors of a victorious Haven attack force as Rageing Justice dropped into the system. Either way -agains just Manticore or the Haven survivors- Fillerta's massive 1st line SLN fleet would have gotten mauled.
Net effect- Manticore is lost, Haven is crippled (all that 1st line expereinced burned up- again-) and the SLN might hold the wreckage of the Manticore system but Fillerta's ships are both trashed and a long way from home.
Instead of the way it unfolded, it becomes a win-win-win for the Alignment. Fillerta dies anyway from that bomb in the flag bridge.
