Gentlesophonts:
My ccr2 worth on the Vargr and Aslan incursions.
As for the Vargr at high pop worlds like Junidy, consider this: nuclear
blackmail. A corsair band shows up, threatens to drop some nukes unless
the locals surrender, so the locals do. This wouldn't work in the `old'
days because the Imperial Navy would show up, blockade the world, and
chase the Vargr down in the Extents if they fled. (Remember, the Vargr
aren't suicidal, just greedy, ruthless and opportunistic.) In the chaos of
the Rebellion such an Imperial response became much less likely so some Vargr
were emboldened.
As for the *ihatei*, clearly these Aslan came to dominate high pop worlds
like Aki and Glisten through economic and diplomatic means as well as military
means. It's one thing to say Glisten would fight when they're assured of
eventual relief from the interior; it's quite another when that relief is
much less certain - especially when reliance upon that relief from the
interior has been ingrained for centuries. (Texans like to think of
ourselves as tough cookies but if a Latin American army showed up at
Houston one day and it was unclear when, if ever, the US Army was going
to help out, I wouldn't put it past the Mayor to quitely succomb to `these
wonderful benefactors from the South'.)
As for the eventual reincorporation of *ihatei*-occupied worlds into the
Regency I suspect many of those Aslan settlers would have no problem
becoming Domain citizens once the Domain Navy *did* show up and it was
certainly a lot simpler (and less bloody) to accept this *fait accompli*
than to try to eject the *ihatei* squatters.
Happy Travelling,
David Johnson
Houston, Texas, USA