[GZG] Requesting a little help with a background (Revolt on

_______________________________________________
Gzg-l mailing list
Gzg-l@vermouth.csua.berkeley.edu
http://vermouth.csua.berkeley.edu:1337/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/gzg-lKen
,

You've got a problem. Even if the Consul turned off the gate, when his
faction was being annihilated, he'd have to turn it back on (or someone
would do it without his authority even if that required 'removing' him).
If,
on the other hand, it is blown up, how do Terrans even claim 1 full
replacement load of reinforcements?

I think the political angle is better. Consul doesn't want his superiors
(and rivals) to know he's having 'a spot of bother with the wogs' so he
just
doesn't report it. He does report a few minor incidents, nothing he
can't
handle, but it justifies calling in some Terran units from *elsewhere in
the
system* (other terran posts in the middle and outer system) to help
'give
the locals a greater sense of security'. No great technological jigaboo,
no
great rebel coup de grace (besides, one presumes the rebel houses still
need
the gate to access their own offworld structures and connections).

So the Consul is just unwilling to admit that his problem is serious. He
thinks he can handle it with his existing troops plus some others from
ships
and small outposts already in the system.

He could be right, he could be wrong, but no way he's giving the Emperor
and
the Consul's rivals at court any sign that this might not be entirely
under
control.

For their part, the locals want to avoid *real* Imperial interest, so
they
don't do anything crazy (like blowing up a gate - who is going to ignore
that?) or launching attacks in other systems. They want to just quietly
seize key assets and then they'll probably end up getting the current
Consul
turfed, getting one of theirs appointed to the job, and things more or
less
continue as is (just with a new boss and new concessions to different
houses). This means they really don't want the Empire's attention ever,
except when they point out how inept the current Consul was (assuming
they
win) and when they 'suggest' his replacement, who now has things well in
hand (fait accomplit).

I think this gives both the Rebels and the Terran faction reasons to
mutually hide the realities of the conflict from the Terran government.
It
helps of course that the Terran bureaucracy is large, unwieldy,
byzantine,
and full of politically interested hacks with axes to grind and small
empires to defend. Stagnant and glacial are their keywords. The only
real
danger is actually waking them up and giving them enough of a reason to
really get involved - they don't do it often, but if it happens, watch
you.
No one wants that, on either side. That could end up with a disgraced
Consul
and seven houses put under Imperial thumb - which the Empire could do,
if
someone actually woke them up. Better to leave the sleeping dragon lie.

That's just one thought,

Thomas B

-- 
http://ante-aurorum-tenebrae.blogspot.com/
http://www.stargrunt.ca

"He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy
from
oppression; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that
will reach to himself." -- Thomas Paine

"When men yield up the privilege of thinking, the last shadow of liberty
quits the horizon." -- Thomas Paine