Roger Sanger speaks of the necessity of Peace in the Regency area:
>Therefore, the Regency, the Zhodani Consolate, the Darrian
>Confederation, the Sword Worlds, and all the governments further
>spinward each have a very high stake in keeping the peace and
>tolerating each others' presence.
I don't know.... Consider the Consulate's view once you give them
the goal of disposing of the remainder of the 3rd Imp and their
willingness to take the longer view:
Continue supporting their Vargr client states (becomes easier once
competion with impies ends with impi demise) provides most of their
clean border that they do not already provide.
They cover a bit more of their own border (hard border with Regency)
They assault Regency (they have SEVERAL SECTORS worth of spare navy
to draw on.
They don't have to win - they just have to make the Regency draw off
enough forces to let the Virus in. The Virus can do most of the work.
The Zho pull back and seal off their border, and spend 50 years
changing their technology to include a non-computer pyschic component
(ie Virus proof) to their ship control systems.
They come back after 50 years and easily take over the corpse of the
Regency, neatly rebuilding the Spinward Marches as Zho societies.
Part of the problem it seems to me about depending on the Vargr is
that the Vargr over the long run do not form stable societies.
The Virus problem will eventually be at the wrong place at the wrong
time during an unstable period and then - bye-bye Vargr state. On
teh other hand, I'll wager that the Vargr are BETTER are rebuilding
collapsed societies than humans are... Perhaps contact will come to
the Regency from Vargr merchants moving through Vampiure areas in
Vampire-proof ships...
Roger Sanger asks:
>How far could a well-stocked 5k-ton vessel go without starport
>support?
>How far could a solar-powered ship go without starport support?
Both questions have the same limits:
The vessel will be fine until something important wears out and needs to be replaced.
(engines, avionics components, life support components, water recycling system, maneuver and
jump drives, power systems, airlock seals, reaction mass pumping systems, battery failure, and
several other things that may have a slight chance of failing over time - some of which are detected
and fixed during semi-annual maintenance which won't be done w/o starport support).
The crew will be fine until they cannot restock with supplies.
(life support or recycling system failure; lack of planets with terran life; small craft failure stopping
the crew from landing, etc.)
>Couldn't such a ship successfully travel across the map and back
>in less than 10 years' time?
According to GDW's spacecraft maintenance requirements, probably not. Something important
would fail and cause the ship to stop moving before then.
>What would its probability of
>success be (at the beginning of the collapse)? (Toward the
>beginning of the New Era)?
Worse toward the beginning, I'd imagine, as you can add the hazards of:
o paranoid surviving planets with space defenses still operating
o pirates who'd love another operational ship
o Virus vampires
o Virus infection
>And what of the MegaCorporations? Wouldn't they want to reclaim
>their companies' assets?
Only where they have survived. However, consider that many corps (or pieces of Megacorps) had
assets (factories, facilities, transportation & distribution nets) that may well have been destroyed or
taken over during the Collapse, or had assets on far flung planets that went out of contact when
the Collapse came. These Megacorps need to survive the Collapse and the Chaos afterward
deprived of the assets that made them Megacorps in the first place. Most Megacorps are more
likely to survive as deserted corporate skyscraper HQs, with a few ancient managers pushing
meaningless paper from office to office because that's what they have always done - since the
collapse.
Doesn't mean it cannot happen. It can even lead to some interesting problems:
Megadodo of Taj Mahal sending mercs to retake a working factory from Megadodo of Bainbridge,
because the Bainbridge office no longer believes that the Taj Mahal office has jurisdiction based on
a memo they received 70 years ago releasing them to reorganize as the local director saw fit...
Amtgeschafft IG demands of the government of Caledonia 70 years in back rent of their electronics
factory which was taken over by the government as an emergency measure 70 years ago - after
the Megacorp pulled its personnel off-planet.
>Just wonderin'
just answerin' :-)
Ted7