Zhodani and Regency

Actually, the Zhodani have no real motivation to smash the Regency,
and a lot of good reasons not to, for now.

>They assault Regency (they have SEVERAL SECTORS worth of spare navy
>to draw on.

Which they weren't willing to use during the Fifth Frontier War, and
they probably won't want to use now.  Also, consider that the
Zhodani are probably using spare fleets not attached to the Core
Expedition and other pursuits to help their Vargr client-states
maintain the quarantine coreward of Windhorn.

>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.

Except that they won't have the Regency doing part of the job for
them anymore, they'll lose a lot of their own ships needed for the
quarantine in the process, and they'll lose the Windhorn-Great Rift
choke point in Corridor that has made holding Virus off for this
long feasible.  And they'll lose every other ally they ever had in
the region, forever.

>They come back after 50 years and easily take over the corpse of the
>Regency, neatly rebuilding the Spinward Marches as Zho societies.

Why just the corpse?  If the Zhodani stay on good terms, there is
a good chance that as long as the current situation holds, the
Regency will side more and more closely with them.  They've already
begun to accept psionics -- this, in the Marches!  They've begun to
implement democratic reforms which are even more far reaching than
Zhodani democracy.  There's probably a faction in the Zhodani
government that figures if things keep going their way, they might
be able to *civilize* the Regency without any more bloodshed!
(From a Zhodani point of view, of course!)

After all, the Zhodani Consulate is now humaniti's biggest living
government, and the Regency is the second largest.  If they can
be converted to an ally or client-state of Zhdant, the advantages
are enormous.  And there is only the memory of the Imperium left
(for now) as an alternative.

(Of course the various Vargr and Aslan New Lords are still around,
 but the Regency does seem to be becoming more and more influenced
 by Zhdant.  It's small now, but it doesn't have to stay that way.)


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