n7axw wrote:Maybe not a large military, but I wouldn't be surprised by a large secret police if it goes as Cthia suggests.
Here is another thought. Imagine Darius being found and neutralized as a threat. Then the RF develops as a normal star nation. Or do they take up the fallen cause...more powerful and dangerous than before. That is where a large military comes into play
Don
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Politics need a chauffeur. Without someone to drive it, support it, protect it and enforce it, its dead in the water. What's the RF/Alignment going to do to dissenters?
They are going to need to establish bases. Basing strategies are predicated on specific needs, hardly ever on convenience. So, when those polities that the RF needs for whatever strategic purposes doesn't want to play along, what is it going to do? Is it going to like, and indeed accept, the GA gobbling up polities in its back yard? Especially if that back yard includes the junction that leads to Darius. The MA has a very ambitious political plan, and it isn't going to be a popular one out of the gate. And when it does come out into the open and step on lots of feet, some of these new members are going to want to secede. They're going to feel like they've been had, handled and abused just like the Mandarins fondled them. Who they gonna call?
"We're gonna call Manticore!"
It's amusing that what goes around comes around with a polity's right to secede all over again. Will the RF acknowledge this right? Right!
If they don't, they better have a navy with a little weight behind it. It may not be a large navy by the standards of the GA, yet. But I think it is meant to be a
decisive navy. A theme Manticore adopted over Haven. And, they're not going to fight fair.
Hence, my notion of a government that will support their long term goals, yet not frighten away the natives. The Constitution is going to read like a cult. Give us all of your assets and one of your testicles. The Malign will need cash when they come out to play in the common galaxy. They're going to end up milking these star nations that joined them to support their cause. The RF is going to turn into Frontier Fleet all over again.
Another thing that amuses me. Will the fractured remnants that are orphaned want to rejoin a large part of a reforming League? Possibly, as far as they know, jumping right back into the witch's brew of the Old Solarian League ways? I'd think that they'd want to ensure that doesn't happen again. They are aware of Manticore and knows its true colors. They'll want to try something different, not something insane. And what will the RF have to say about that if it has no balls backed by a navy? Having been severely burned by the Mandarins, I think these fractured systems are going to be shy about trusting anyone else now that they've finally gotten their freedom. A new polity with a "holy-shit-what-kinda-government-is-this" isn't going to entice them to come running like the jingle of an ice cream truck.
Is it just me who sees that the MA isn't going to be able to accomplish their endgame on their salesmanship alone? That's going to be a hell of a sales pitch if so. They're going to have to steal, kill, kew, cull and bury some key people, mafia-style, behind the scenes. Much like what they hired Harahap to do. Which will lead again to Manticore getting a sniff of something wicked this way comes. Their end game is simply not going to be accomplished on charm and good looks alone.
One very poignant question. Where will the RF stand as far as the Eridani Edict is concerned?
Again, they've got the ability to cull by kewing while saving infrastructure. They can shape governments to their will, while hiding amongst the naive, fractured citizens of the League -- who then will essentially be held hostage by a cult. The GA won't be able to simply storm the compound with innocents. What a squirmy bag of gummy worms.