Steven Bonneville writes:
>
>The obliteration of Aki still confuses me...the ihatei can't be that stupid,
>can they?
You wouldn't think so, would you? Btw. did they obliterate Aki? Wasn't that
some other place? My impression was that they _invaded_ Aki - which makes
even less sense. Try controlling 40 billion humans armed to tek 10 even if
you've got tek 12 or 13. Go on, I dare you! :-)
>The population pressure is there, though. There are a few worlds in the
>Hierate that are very small in surface area and have populations pushing
>the hundred billions mark -- I've seen worlds at ninety, ninety-one billion
>there. What is the most crowded world anybody's seen, anyway?
True. I've rechecked my calculations, and I have to retract my earlier
contention that the ihatei couldn't possibly be a threat to the Domain.
Not only could they be a huge threat, pontentially they could roll up the
Domain and carry it away.
The numbers involved in ihatei export is at the same time ridiculously small
and staggeringly huge. According to my calculations an aslan world can afford
to outfit 0.0027 % of it's population each year, or 0.08 % in 30 years. That's
_one twelfth of one percent_ of each generation. That can't provide any kind
of relief except psycological. Not that psycological relief isn't important.
But when you combine the ihatei fleets of 7000 aslan worlds you get quite
a lot. Figuring on one 10.000 T cruiser escort for each 50.000 T colony
transport, the naval vessels of one year's worth of ihatei works out as the
equivalent of 16.280 trillion credit squadrons!
An avarage subsector can support 132 TCRs (in my campaign I divide that into
1/3 for system defenses, 1/3 for reserve (subsector) fleets and 1/3 for
regular fleets, but let's say everything is regular fleets). The Domain
of Deneb contained approx. 25 subsectors before the troubles. That's
equivalent to 3300 TCRs. True, the regular ships would be superior to the
obsolescent ihatei ships, but 16.280 TCRs of obsolescent ships could roll
over that and leave nothing but a smear...
Fortunately not every ihatei ship would go to the Domain:
1) Over half of the hierate is further from the Domain that they are from
the Hierate's rimward border and would go there instead.
2) Most ihatei ships are jump-3. The logistics of getting a J3 fleet across
the J5 route of the Great Rift are horrendous. I guess that the clans
that control the route have a lot of huge jump shuttles, but using them
would cost money, so the ihatei that are more or less the same distance
from the Domain and the rimward border would go for the border.
3) The ihatei near Reaver's Deep need no longer consider the Imperium a
deterrent to settling there. I would suppose that the Aslan would be all
over Reaver's Deep like a coat of paint! (And why dosen't that show on
the _Hard Times_ maps?) That's another big chunk of ihatei that won't
want to cross the Rift.
4) Once across the Rift the ihatei are closer to Beyond and Touchstone
Sectors than to the Domain parts of Trojan Reach. And there is a 10-12
parsec buffer zone between the Domain and the Aslan worlds in Trojan
Reach. The Domain Fleet may have deterred the Aslan from settling
there earlier, but now?
5) Building an ihatei fleet and sending it 50-100 parsecs away across a
rift is wasteful. You'll never see it again, so you only get rid of one
fleetload of ihatei. You could export many more if you just moved into
the neighbouring system and started shuttling ihatei in. And of course
your neighbour is in the same position. We know that all through the
Long Night the Aslan clans were unable to cooperate and that they've kept
feuding ever since then. Any Lakht Aorlakht to the contrary notwithstand-
ing, the Aslans are going to spend most of their strength fighting each
other. And a good thing too. Otherwise, geometric progression being what
it is, the entire Charted Space would be hip-deep in Aslans in another
couple of thousand years.
With all these variables involved we can pretty much tailor the strength of
the ihatei to represent any level of threath to the Domain that we want.
(Especially as we're told that some ihatei fleets have been hanging around
for years). If we want the Aslans to conquer the rimward subsectors of the
Domain, then we can adjust the numbers accordingly. Except for one thing:
The Aslans are not a united people. Where the Domain forces are under a
unified command, the Aslan are split into 4000 clans (with subclans
rebelling to become new clans all the time - and there's another source
of Aslan weakening). Now, regardless of the number of ihatei, the Domain
can destroy the first dozen fleets. By then they may not be in a position
to do much about the next dozen, true. But what ihatei admiral is going to
allow the Lakht Aorlakht to make his fleet one of the first dozen? And the
first fleets _are_ going to be clobbered (A wise domain admiral will destroy
or capture the cruisers and escort the transports back across the border.
Then that fleet will be at a _huge_ disadvantage vis a vis other ihatei
fleets. What Aslan admiral is going to risk that?).
Well, perhaps if there were no alternative, the ihatei would be desperate
enough to try. But what's wrong with Beyond, Touchstone, Vanguard Reaches,
Iphigenaia, Fulani, Theron, Astron, Theta Borealis and points spinward?
There may be interstellar states there too, but surely not any worse than
a Domain that represents 25 subsectors?
Incidentally, can't you just see all those ihatei fleets meekly following
the directions of the Lakht Aorlakht? "OK, Admiral A, you go and invade
that Aslan-prime world, and you, Admiral B, you get this world with the
fluid oceans. Sorry, there aren't enough A-prime worlds to go around, but
I'm sure you'll be satisfied with that one." :-)
Hans Rancke
University of Copenhagen
[email removed]
- ------------
"And now to conclude and to finish my song.
Let us hope that these hard times, they will not last long.
I hope soon to have occasion to alter my song;
and sing: All the good times of the Empire.
In the Empire are jolly good times."
Last verse of traditional song.