Aslan ihatei incursions
In reply to #7656 Is Glisten in the Regency in 1200? by Roger Sanger
Roger Sanger writes: >Subject: Is Glisten in the Regency in 1200? > ASLAN INVASION OF REGENCY TERRITORY > >I was looking over some UWP data of the Spinward Marches >recently, and many of the worlds I thought were part of the >Regency (Rebellion Era) were marked as being controlled by the >Aslan. > >The data in the Imperial Encyclopedia reflects this. > >One of the worlds was Glisten! > >I wouldn't have expected an asteroid cluster with a population of >9 BILLION and a tech-level of 15, a naval base, a scout base, >major shipyards with large Imperial Naval contracts, and a >civilization based heavily on interplanetary transportation to >fall to any but the largest conceivable Aslan Fleet! What >happened? GDW failed to consider the ramifications of what they had already established about Aslan ihatei and made a massive mistake in an effort create one more Rebellion faction. >MY QUESTION IS THIS: > What worlds were taken over by the Aslan invasion, and then, what > worlds were taken back by the Regency??????? Likewise Caffine Achiever! [email removed] writes: >Looking back at my MT map of the Spinward Marches. Isn't all of Glisten >subsector within the area of Aslan Conquest? Not to mention about a quarter >of Trin's Veil Subsector (spin-rim ward)? Assuming the conquest area >would narrow as it reached deeper into Imperial territory, I dare to >assume that Pax Rulin, Gazulin, Sindal, and Tobia would've been overran as >well. (Also see Imperial map in Survival Margin, pg 98) > >[...] > >Also about 1/2 to 2/3 of Aramis Subsector was overrun by the Vargr >Invasions. I would imagine the 214th also took a beating before this was >allowed to happen. If the terrority was not retaken by the time of the >New Era the 214th would probably still exist but expect it to have shiny new >TL-16 ships and performing quite aggressive patrols along the frontiers. And the Vargr (as originally described) are equally incapable of posing a credible threat. I've presented my arguments against the seriousness of Aslan ihatei threat before. I'll do it again if anyone wants to dispute the matter. But for now I'll just post a letter that I worked out to explain away most of the inconsistencies and what happened afterwards: - ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Message from High Commissioner the Lord Goolanzoon, Sector Admiral, Imperial Navy (ret.), Minister without portfolio of the Archduchy of Deneb, to His Grace Archduke Norris of Deneb using the private cypher: Mora, 345-1118 Dear Pruneface, Well, the "Committee to Review the recent events in the Trojan Reaches with a view to ascertaining etc. etc." - in short, what went wrong and what can we do about it? - has finally completed it's investigation. No doubt you'll eventually get a predigested resume of our findings through your tame bureau- crats, but I thought you'd appreciate a informal overview. (And to be totally honest, I'm too damn exited to wait for an official reaction). First of all, there's no doubt that the whole thing was shockingly mis- managed by the Duke of Tobia and Admiral Torgeson. They seem to've lost their so-called heads completely. True, most of the regular units were up coreward watching the zhos, but the astrographics of the Reach is such that any first- year cadet could've stopped the aslan by garrisoning a few key worlds and forming a few fire-fighter squadrons. These are ihatei, after all, using obsolescent clan hand-me-downs - not much superior to our Reserve forces (rather the reverse, if anything). Hell, give me a half-decent spy network and a good courier system and I'd've undertaken to stop them with half the forces the two fatheads had. Instead Tobia and Torgeson concentrated their forces to guard the few worlds that were already so well protected that no sane aslan would dream of trying to muscle in on them and sat around with their thumbs up their bums while our bewhiskered land-grabbing friends grabbed left, right and center. And none of the other nobles had the gumption to do anything more than try and protect their own little patch (mostly with pitiful results). Personally I think that the proper cure for what ails the local nobility is a collective brain-transplant. If you can't find enough donors, a set of cheap paper substitutes will still be an improvement! I know, I know. We can't really do anything about the nobles - but I can dream, can't I? - but you ought to sack the top three levels of the Fleet, at least. There's a few you'd have to kick upstairs and a couple of exceptions, but most of the idiots deserve to be cashiered. That's the result of the Reach being too far from any real fighting for centuries, I guess - all the fools wind up down here, where they, quote "can't do any harm", end quote. Ha, bloody ha! I've said it myself, may the Guiding Spirit forgive me. I spoke of fools, but I'm pretty sure that there's also a few knaves around. That shocking business with Aki - ihatei that far inside the frontier and 30 parsec from their base, for the luffa Mike! - couldn't've happened without the conniving of somebody pretty high up. I have a few of my bright young men looking into it - hopefully giving the lardbutts of the local Naval Intelligence (hmpf!) a few well-deserved heart attacks in the process - - and when we find the culprits, the bastards are going to breathe vacuum! Mind you, I've often wondered what made the aslans commit that particular bit of lunacy. Imagine trying to control 10 billion locals with a few hundred thousands. They had a couple of tech levels on the locals, true, but as I always say, once you can make explosives the rest is just dressing. Anyway, young Blackstone-Hawke - remember him? He was one of Santanocheev's hangers- on and wound up in charge of the Gazulin Reserve Fleet after the shake-up - Well, he seems to have had a few more brain cells than we gave him credit for (or perhaps being stuck in the boonies for half a decade has wised him up). The moment he heard about Aki he put a fleet across the aslani supply lines, and the last I heard about it the survivors were at the peace tables with their tail between their legs. (Not that far between their legs though. They have been raiding Glisten and a lot of other places for supplies, and they still control the Aki system. But I guess you know all this already). Anyway, there's no getting around the fact that the dam is well and truly broken. Apointing blame is all very well - it's rapidly becoming the fa- vourite sport of the local nitwits - but the real problem is what to do about it. Curiously enough according to my tame sociologists the problem is more the locals than the aslans. You remember the old diplomatic joke? "You give us what we want or we beat the hell out of you and take it anyway"? Well, apart from at Aki and a few other places, the aslans seems to have come up with a variant: "You sell us what we want or we beat the hell out of you and buy it anyway"! Most of them prefer to buy rather than take - they just don't take no for an answer! Nor would there normally be any problems with getting them to swear fealthy to the Imperium. Well, that's not altogether true; some of the clans are quite anti-Imperium. But we'd have the strength to deal with them if we could get along with the rest. That would seem to solve most of the problem, wouldn't it? If they're willing to pay for what they take and to become loyal citizens, then we real- ly should be able to work out something, right? Alas, the locals have become thoroughly paranoid about them and in many cases refuse to share their worlds with them. They organize their own militias and try to push the aslans off their planets. And you know what happens when you push an aslan - he pushes right back! If something isn't done, the descendents of both sides are going to be sniping at each others 200 years from now. Fortunately we have been able to come up with a solution! That's right, we have an answer, and it's so simple that you're going to kick yourself for not thinking of it yourself. I did when my aide earned the fastest promotion in history with just one sentence. Think about it. What are our two greatest problems today? One is that we have all these young aslans swarming up from rimwards, eager for land and willing to fight for it, and we can't stop them, because most of our ships are up corewards trying to keep the damn Vargr from devastating more planets than they already have. I really wish I could see your face now, Pruney. As my aide said: "Why don't we get our two problems to fight each other?" Corewards and in Corridor there are scores of planets whose populations have been decimated; untold acres of prime land whose legitimate owners and their heirs are dead and gone. We can hire all the ihatei we can get and pay them off with that land! And you can bet your bottom credit that the survivors are not going to regard the aslans as interlopers. They'll be saviours! Furthermore, once we have a credible offer to make, we'll be able to play the aslan clans off against each others. You know how fragile aslan alliances are, Frankly I'm amazed that the present one has held so long as it has, and it has only done so because they could get more out of cooperating with each other than with us. The land the aslans can get down here rimwards is mostly second choice. Give them an offer of prime land and they're not going to let the Vargr stand in the way. And we'll be able to favour the friendliest clans, leaving us in a position to make the unfriendly ones toe the line. With the extra strength the aslan can supply (not to metion the ships we will be able to spare from the rim) we should be able to clear the Domain of Vargr. Hell, we may even be in a position to clear Corridor, although my aslan experts doubt it. They say that the present massive burst of ihatei will taper off in a year or so, and that it will be a long time before the pressure builds up to the pre-Revolution level. For one thing, the ihatei has mostly leap-frogged over all the neutral worlds we kept between them and us, and it will be some time before they've "filled in the cracks". Still, who knows? Perhaps enough of them will prefer Corridor to filling in cracks. What I suggest is that we keep this plan secret and try to surprise the Vargr. The most pressing problem is Aki and the rest of Glisten. If you will send me a warrant, I'll take over the negotiations and get the ball rolling. I've already put my staff on to planning the logistics which, I admit, are going to be a headache. But worth it, I'd say! Cheerio, Goggles. - ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- (Having seen this letter Mike Metlay came up with the following little joke: Q: Would you rather have a lion attack you or a wolf? A: I'd rather he attacked the wolf...) Hans Rancke University of Copenhagen [email removed] - ------------ "The referee should determine the nature of subsequent events based on the individual situation." _76 Patrons_, p. 8