The Project - Ripples Through the Imperium

[Nathan Brazil]

If you take Mongoose 1st Ed into account (they are canon, are they not?), Project Phoenix is alive and kicking. The dismantling as described in CT was merely a feint:

Over the decades and particularly in the last 40 years planetoid hulled escorts and cruisers have jumped into Terra’s Kuiper belt or asteroid belt, where, disguised as asteroids, they lie in waiting for the uprising. Today the Solomani Confederation Navy maintains the equivalent of three cruiser squadrons and four SDB wings in place throughout the Sol system with some of these forces on Terra itself.
Even so, these forces are not enough to take Terra. The Solomani intend to reserve them for a time when Imperial forces are diverted by some other event. This might be a Solomani uprising elsewhere in the Rim, a succession crisis within the Imperium or news of a looming Imperial defeat in a future Frontier War with the Zhodani and their allies. - Solomani Rim p 114

.The Day of Liberation is coming!
Solomani Über Alles !:devil:

 

[aramis]

If you take Mongoose 1st Ed into account (they are canon, are they not?),

Only the ones that have the "Third Imperium" logo are canon.

 

[Nathan Brazil]

Then it counts, yea ! :rofl: Thanks Aramis!

 

[jcrocker]

Anything jumping into the Kuiper Belt, I have no problem believing. That's such a huge region. Kicker is, it's so far out by maneuver drive that it's quicker for them to jump into the inner system.

The asteroid belt I don't know if I'd believe. With Terra occupied for how many decades, it would take an incredibly incompetent Imperial Navy to fail to put up a decent passive sensor network. The asteroid belt is close enough that you can reasonably have relays of scout ships on standing patrols, where the odds of them noticing "hey, look, there's a new rock" are much higher than in the Kuiper Belt.

 

[Condottiere]

The Confederation has a Schlieffen Plan, though it probably has to be updated every decade or so.

Their major war aim is liberalizing occupied territory within the Sphere, though it can't just be ideology that gets the Confederation Navy to agree to concentrate that many crews and ships as sleeper cells in the Terran solar system, while it would be indeed a diplomatic and political coup to recapture Earth, it's also likely that the Imperium naval commanders have orders to rally there, on the correct assumption that at least one major push of the Confederation Navy would be in that direction.

 

[Swiftbrook]

The Project: March 10 Update

The Ripples Through the Imperium Map Project continues. I’ve hit several snags and changes in directions. The major snag is I can’t get a map that I’m happy with in a low enough resolution to upload. My files are gigantic! The change in direction has been primarily changing colors and having to recolor maps.

Below is my map as of 184-1116. Dulinor arrived at Urak on 177-1116 (one week before reported events in the Rebellion Handbook) just barely in front of the naval couriers. Dulinor’s route is indicated in Navy Blue.

Light Blue show the systems that Dulinor has distributed his proclamation announcing himself as the Emperor. These are the first worlds that have been visited as his couriers left Urak on 177-1116. Most were sent to systems in the Ilelish sector, but a few were sent to nearby X-Boat stations to begin spreading his proclamation to the rest of the Imperius.

Yellow systems show have far the X-Boat system has carried the news of Stephon’s death and Lucan’s assentation to the throne.

Red systems indicate where the jump-6 naval couriers have arrived also informing the nobility in those systems.

Systems in purple. These are the interesting systems. The systems where the naval couriers have arrived from Capital with Lucan’s claim and instructions to capture/destroy Dulinor, but the public has received (on some worlds only hour before or after) Dulinor’s proclamation. This was done intentionally by Dulinor. He believes there is a chance that the world may support him, but there is a far greater probability that the world will be moved to inaction. Neither supporting him nor initially opposing him, thus buying him more time.

Green worlds (not yet indicated) will be the worlds that have received both Lucan’s and Dulinor’s new of events on Capital on 132-1116.

 

[Orffen]

Any new updates to this project?

 

[BRJN]

Well, this was unexpected: J-6 from Capital to Depot/Daibei takes 24 weeks if you stop only at X-boat stations (but take shortcuts across the published routes). But if you max out the drive and come out just wherever on a straight-line course, it takes 19 weeks. The 19 week figure fits the map in Rebellion Sourcebook.

Given that this is supposed to be a secret network, I did not expect the couriers to pull out "Priority Fire-Engine Red" sirens, I expected them to behave something more like "Please move me to the front of the line, Attendant, I have urgent business".

 

[BRJN]

I am working on a map that will show when 'secret word' and 'official word' of Strephon's assassination reached various points in the Solomani Theatre of Operations, mostly a variety of border worlds.
Since 'secret word' just takes a J-6 drive on almost a straight line, this is relatively easy. There are complications if you want to stop at sector capitals or Depots to alert The Authorities, but usually easily dealt with.
Getting 'official word' out via the X-boat routes is taking longer. I wish TravellerMap had a selector button 'follow XBoat route' on its route generator. At the moment, I am highlighting the straight-line J-4 route and tracing the closest Xboat route. I've been snookered more than once by a long dead-end.

Progress continues. When I finish the Imperial side of the border, I will look at where Solomani informants take over carrying the news. At this point, it looks like Home is going to learn the 'secret word' via Mirabilis, not from the Old Expanses border (closest to events on Capital), because the Solomani official J-5 limit is slower and taking the long way around the Sphere.

 

[Major B]

I am working on a map that will show when 'secret word' and 'official word' of Strephon's assassination reached various points in the Solomani Theatre of Operations, mostly a variety of border worlds.
Since 'secret word' just takes a J-6 drive on almost a straight line, this is relatively easy. There are complications if you want to stop at sector capitals or Depots to alert The Authorities, but usually easily dealt with.
Getting 'official word' out via the X-boat routes is taking longer. I wish TravellerMap had a selector button 'follow XBoat route' on its route generator. At the moment, I am highlighting the straight-line J-4 route and tracing the closest Xboat route. I've been snookered more than once by a long dead-end.

BRJN, I think you might be missing a variable there so I thought I would post some food for thought. Keep in mind that I am joining the conversation late so I may have missed this somewhere upthread, but here goes.

I recommend that you do not assume availability of J6 couriers along every possible path. X-Boats yes, but couriers no.

J6 boats would not be nearly as widely available as X-Boats because they are (by comparison at least) expensive, inefficient, and take up limited TL15 Yard capacity to build.

The limited number of J6 boats would be focused on the routes to inform (in order) senior nobles and naval leaders at domain level, then sector, then subsector though this level may have to be relegated to getting the news by J4.

Further, they would only be plying the most direct and efficient routes to domain level leadership and then linked reporting via the most direct routes to sector leadership.

I think this restriction might give some interesting results on you map, so again - food for thought in case you hadn't considered it.

Mike

 

[BRJN]

Welcome to the thread !

Comments and ideas and (constructive) criticism always welcomed; I am not nearly the summa of all knowledge - alas.

I had thought about limited vs unlimited numbers of J-6 courier ships. One implication of thae limited quantity is I would have to rough-draft design the J-6 'secret news' distribution network, which is more work than I want to put in on that subject. (Maybe later...) The first 'run to the border' I worked out went to the point in Old Expanses where the Solomani and Imperial borders diverge; as it happened, the plot created by TravellerMap passed within 3 parsecs of both the sector capital and Depot/OldEx. It's not a "realistic" system to have one ship travel all the way to a semi-random border world, but it gives me a rule-of-thumb value to start working from.

PS Whoever in-game-universe designed the X-Boat routes between Capital and Terra has earned a starring role in the 'Conspiracy Theories of the Rebellion' thread !

 

[AtlanticFriend]

A ladleful of handwavium I confess, but the Solomani quick reaction might be caused by a X-boat misjumping beyond the 6-parsec usual limit, making the SC aware of the assassination more quickly than would have been normally the case, thus allowing more time to prepare the invasion.