SYED wrote: Mon Jun 18, 2018 8:13 am
It seems Jason is for afraid than he should be. It will take time and resources to launch an epic revenge fleet, they need supplies and refit ships for both operations against the confederation and to make the trip accross the void. There is a limit to what kind of course they can take and it will still take years.
Jason has a secure system with a star gate in andromeda, the remote portal stations and the translight hyperdrive being equipped to his FTL fleet. As soon as the dreamers are fully removed from the benga, he can unleash his full legion style fury on the syndicate. Likely making them so vulnerable that the remaining consortium forces could potentially win the war on their own.
It depends on how rational the Benga Leadership is being. Even their "Standard configuration" ships are valid threats to the Milky Way, and an attack in numbers would likely still be adequate to the task of overwhelming the Milky Way's defenders even despite their technological superiority. Historical Precedents exist here on Earth. Of course, those ships DO have to survive the Transit first. I'm sure they can provide more than ample cause for those ships to end up taking multiple detours and breaking into smaller parts over the course of their flight. (Particle streams anyone?)
3D will certainly have plenty of time to give them hell as well. (I think some large-ish anti-matter bombs making use of the Frigate IP armor could make for "interesting times" for the Benga as well, you don't need to destroy the ship when it's years away, just take a large bite out of their primary armor)
And as previously mentioned, the threat only exists with the current Board as it stands. You may not even need to kill them outright, just keep hitting their various properties on a semi-regular basis. In that respect, they already cast their dice with their order of a "Retribution Fleet" to scourge the Milky Way. So long as they remain in power, the people's of the Milky Way have no reason to back down now. So just keep whittling down their physical, personal, assets until someone else has more money than the retaliating board members do, and leave the new (less-hostile) board members alone.
Proceed with "Harass the Fleet" as well, to make it clear that such undertakings are going to be expensive for them personally, as well as at the corporate level. You don't need to defeat the entire fleet, you need to make the people on the board decide it isn't worthwhile for them to pursue it and recall their fleet.
The challenge is that puts the Confederation in the position of operating a 4 front fight with varying levels of participation on each front. KMS Frigates stealth bombing board member properties, ongoing Confederation actions in Andromeda to keep the Benga worried back home, harassment actions directed at the incoming super-fleet, and work on the home front just in case the worst-case comes to pass.
We need to remember that many of the defense scenarios covered in the series to date were outlined without use of the Hyperspace FTL drive being considered as something to be used "in depth." Hit and run IS as option for them now.
This retaliatory fleet might be a good thing. It was mentioned that telepaths were specificly recruited for the last expedition, so want to bet if they are going after a powerful telepathic power like house karrine, they would recruit more. So most if not all the front line military telepaths would be sent. Those that were detailed to guard the dreamers would most definitely be sent out of punishment. The benga are said to be about 50% telepathic, I wonder how many then decide to go into the military. They would accept all the front line capable gifted, then fill the ranks of the fleet with that with the gift.
I could go 50/50 on this. As the plan is "scorched earth" for the entire Milky Way, I doubt surface engagements are going to be on the itinerary for those ships. As I also doubt many/most of those ships are going to be (fully) refitted to an anti-Confederacy loadout. I think many of those ships are going to be considered fully expendable, they're simply fodder to help protect the other more capable ships. As such, the number of telepaths on board may actually be
lower than normal because of that.
Sort of like how all faey get military subscription, nobles go into their own house forces while the imperial forces only accept the most powerful of recruits from the commoners. So all the imperial class military telepathic benga will be sent for revenge, and if more are needed, they would simply fill the crew with benga that serve the military in a non telepathic avenue but still posses the gift.
Because of the depth and extent of the disruption currently happening across Andromeda because of Confederate operations regarding the Dreamers. I somewhat doubt there is going to that much reshuffling of ship's crews, if anything, they'd probably be pulling people off, not adding more. Likewise, because of the mass interdiction currently going on, I'm still going to stick to most ships still having a "standard loadout" on weaponry, although many may be provisioned to change some systems out while enroute.
Also, House Karrine wrecking the benga by themselves might be enough to get the confederate members to toe the line. The see the house crippling such a power like the benga, makes them aware if they cross them, they could suffer a similar fate. It is one thing to know a fact in theory, but to see it happen to such a powerful foe in a whole new ballgame.
I seem to recall a comment(which I cannot find) from Fel suggesting that there is another group out there which Jason Karrine is going to encounter, and he's going to want the Syndicate around when that encounter happens. So something tells me that total destruction of that Million Ship Fleet isn't truly on the table. They're going to need to get the Benga to turn that fleet around.
