A DISCUSSION OF THE DENEBIAN BLOCKADE
I know this has been hashed out once, but I thought another close
look at it couldn't hurt.
The maps of the Frontier-Wilds line in _Survival Margin_ and TNE
don't quite jibe. SM suggests that some vargr states in Gvurrdon
are still holding out. (Look *above* the legend box near the Zho
border.) TNE shows everything outside Regency/Consulate space to
be Wilds. If you take all wilds to be virus-infested, then there
are no uninfected surviving vargr states. So the Regency is
forced to defend the entire coreward border at full force.
In Deneb, some subsectors are totally lost: Million, Atsah, and
Antra beyond the xboat line, and a world or two in Lamas. Except
for some loss in Antra, these were mainly worlds *already* lost
to the vargr or the client states near Atadl. The worlds in the
Great Rift, although shown otherwise, are isolated out far enough
to be safe. The naval blockade at Catacomb (2234) is actually
*outside* the frontier line drawn. No bases were at Catacomb as
of 1120.
In Reft, the Rift Republic is a Frontier. However, so is the RC.
It belongs to neither side of the Rift -- it's jump-7 either way.
However, the link to the Denebians at Tonnurad was threatened by
the New Lords expansion in the 1120s. The Republic's defense is
assured since the only virus approaches are through the Old Islands
worlds -- and we all know about how strong the local military is.
Otherwise, the Reft worlds on the Denebian side are fairly safe.
All have class-B starports, and there is a former Imperial Navy
base at Arnorac (2509) that had seen a sharp increase in traffic
since 1116, and which the RQS could use.
In Troy, the defensive line seems to exclude two important worlds
(the *only* two worlds) in the Binary subsector. Both should be
safe. First, they belong to the Denebian side of the Rift. One,
Sarage (2938), was the site of an Imperial research station and
naval base. The other, Auitawry, is a weird one. An interdicted
droyne world at tech-15, with a class-A port, droyne naval base,
known Ancient site, and 500 million residents. It might *own* the
other by now! So even if virus could get there, it would have
a few troubles once the worlds had warning.
I wonder how Virus and the Ancient ship in Komesh would get along?
In Riftspan, the New Lords have it right. The main jump-5 route
that runs through the mid-rift cluster has been cut just short
of it, at Aoki (1816). Afatre (2219) on in is outside the line.
There is a *second* jump-5 route across the rift that branches
off at Esui, but it is also cut in the best place, at Waikhta
(1420). The cuts are in just the right places to deny the virus
access to any worlds accessible on the Denebian side of the Rift.
From Waikhta, you can reach two worlds, and shortly the mid-Rift
cluster is accessible. I fully expect that both systems look like
Aslan naval depots by now.
In fact, the Aslan line is far more defensible than the Regency's
position. A better place for the Regency line would be Corridor/B
Windhorn/N, and the best would have been Corridor/D, Windhorn/P.
However, these were vargr held regions. I suppose that the vargr
fought a valiant rear-guard action in Corridor and Windhorn to
try to save themselves and the states further to spinward (a success
would have brought "mongo charisma" <grin>) but undoubtedly it was
impossible for them to organize enough to form a tight barrier in
time. It probably held long enough for Deneb to get organized,
though.
Steve Bonneville
[email removed]