The First Intersentient War

> Maybe the KV think we're a subject race of the Really Bad Dudes (eg the

Or maybe they're actually running away from the RBDs, and Earth just happens
to be in the way. Their own homeworlds being threatened several clans have
been sent against Humanity to clear space to escape to while the war rages on
the far side of Kravak space.

Some thoughts.

First, I refer you to this link:
http://www.stargrunt.ca/settings_hist/gzg_timeline/gzg_timeline.htm

2186 - ESU fails to support NAC (or so history
records it - there might be two sides to this
story)

2187 - Everyone starts to think defensive.
Natural as breathing, as lethal to a war winning strategy as arsenic.

2189 - The humans suffer a deep thrust from
the KV and determine "hey, maybe we need to work together..."

2190 - signs the Kra'Vak clans are working
together more closely to overcome the Hu'man challenge

2192 - Kra'Vak (or perhaps a UNSIA/UNBOSS
operation to help get the humans to panic and work more closely together by
faking a Kra'Vak raid... no.... of course they wouldn't do that.... would
they?) raid into the Sol system. Any human that hasn't got the message that
this is for keeps is out to lunch.

2193 - UNSC orders Sol protected.... only parts
of the fleets agree. Many colonial fleets tell them to "Sod off!". This
undoubtedly creates
post-war problems (assuming the humans
survive period). The UNSC is assuming an even larger mantle of control of
joint human operations... this is the creeping big government thing that the
AE and a few others
fear....

2194 - Siege of Sol has started.... by this time,
we're all in the same pot boiling merrily away.

So, what can we determine from this?

1) Traditional enemies won't want to help each other, at least at the outset.
Political games will continue for some time. 2) The UNSC will become more and
more desparate and attempt to take greater and greater control (this could be
a version of a political game in a sense) 3) Colonial fleets will worry about
THEIR homes being abandoned 4) By late in the war, anyone who hasn't figured
out we're all fighting to survive is probably pushed aside and replaced. I'd
figure most human nations would be cooperating with the UNSC and the Big 4
would be firmly behind the UNSC (sometimes with knives... but that's nothing
new). Everyone would be frantically expanding their supply of attrition units
to blunt
the Kra'Vak thrusts - planetary fighter groups
would be being cranked out rapidly and pilots
would get WW2 style training - get your ass up
there and fight! Ground forces would be expanded dramatically with a full
mobilization and then some to counteract the expected invasion. It would be
very problematic for the commanders of Earth's defence to mount deep strikes
against the enemy (the political costs would be enormous for such adventurism)
despite the fact this may be a key to blunting
the Kra'Vak thrusts - the ships would have to
be seen to be "defending" not "risking themselves foolishly". Generals and
Admirals would be fighting a war for "All the Marbles" with one hand tied
behind their back by the public's panic and fears of widescale rioting and
worldwide revolution and unrest. As things worsen, Army recruits may disappear
with their weapons to defend homes and afmilies. Whole units may mutiny and
you may see the worldwide "last day on earth" syndrome kick in.

No one has talked about this. But... WHO SAYS HUMANITY WINS? Jon really hasn't
let on. Maybe Earth faces a Kra'Vak Occupation! Maybe we end up having to
drive them from Earth via Guerilla war. Maybe we just lose out and our hope
goes to off Earth colonies (somewhat like the theme in the RPG High Colonies).
Or maybe we just lose and FT4 covers the timeline of the universe sans
humanity.....

Some grist for the mill.

> --- Thomas Barclay <kaladorn@fox.nstn.ca> wrote:

> No one has talked about this. But... WHO SAYS

You don't drive anyone anywhere via guerilla warfare without outside support
and safe havens.

Tomb said:
> No one has talked about this. But... WHO SAYS

Maybe the KV think we're a subject race of the Really Bad Dudes (eg the
Cthulhoid/Puppetmaster Hive) who are on the other side of us and they're
just going through us to get to them. And it turns out that we should've
joined the KV instead of fighting them.

> Or maybe

Nonsense--throw away all that lead?

> On Mon, Dec 31, 2001 at 12:12:54PM -0500, laserlight@quixnet.net wrote:

> Maybe the KV think we're a subject race of the Really Bad Dudes (eg the

The Really Bad Dudes will probably turn out to be the Sa'Vasku, or whatever is
really controlling them. Never trusted 'em...

> Nonsense--throw away all that lead?

New from Exploitative Zero Games: Post-Invasion Fleets. You can't play
without the official miniatures, of course...

> Tomb said:

There's an interesting book by Kevin O'Donnell Jr. -- the title, alas,
escapes me -- that
pits humanity against an extremely agressive alien race, who appears to be
attacking for no good reason. As it turns out, the aliens are using the
relatively
low-tech human
troops to train their soldiers for the war against the REAL enemy, on the far
side of space.

Fun book.  Kinda space-operatic, but nothing wrong with that.  I'll look
up the title when I get home, if anyone is interested.

Tomb said:
> It would be very problematic for the

I think several Human groups will look to their own histories to learn
opposite examples. The case can be made that the Battle of Britain was won by
the bombing of Berlin by british forces. The damage done by the attack was not
in itself decisive, but the fact of the attack made the Germans (right or
wrong) rethink their strategy. While attacks on the island continued, they
were never as intense or dangerous to the outcome

of the war. The bombing of Berlin wasn't considered adventurism at any point
that I can recall.

In the case of the KV, it would come down to whether the humans believe an
offensive move against their home territories would cause them to back down or
intensify their efforts.

Frankly, if humanity itself is under dire threat, somebody somewhere is going
to be looking into turning things around fast, dirty and brutal.
Find the KV homeworld and lay a continent-melter on it. Hiroshima,
Ender's Game, any number of other scenarios.

I would love to see that type of assault on the KV as a kind of
mini-campaign. A multinational force of several thousand NPV, maybe a
"stealth FTL" that would keep the KV guessing the Human intentions until

a jump or two from the homeworld, several early encounters in outer
territories (or feints with smaller splinter forces), and a final battle

where humanity is greatly outnumbered, but the objective is to lay the egg(s)
on the planet, not defeat the enemy fleet (or even survive with any ships
intact).

> Generals and Admirals

Was that ever a problem in WWII within the Allied powers - say after
Pearl Harbor? I would think the answer is no, but with populations an order of
magnitude higher, I suppose the three sigma groups of
various-mongers are commensurately larger.

Laserlight said:

> Maybe the KV think we're a subject race of the Really Bad Dudes (eg

There was a giant robot-suit comic in the mid-late 80's called Dynamo
Joe that had a similar plot - the first bad-but-misunderstood aliens
were SV/hive mind types. I don't know if they ever got around to
unveiling the uber-opponents. There are quite a few plots out there like

that, and an eminently reasonable twist  for the 23rd century GZG-verse.

> Noam Izenberg wrote:

> > Generals and Admirals

While they didn't give into it, there was plenty of pressure from within the
United States to "protect the home waters" with what was left of the fleet
after Pearl Harbor. The civilians on the West Coast were *very* worried that
the Japanese might come after the continental US while the fleet carriers were
off nosing around elsewhere. Probably the one factor that allowed the US Navy
to avoid falling victim to that sort of panic was the fact that Japanese codes
had been broken, and that they actually had some idea of Japanese intentions
(not that they could broadcast that fact to the public, mind you!). However,
that panic, intense as it was, lasted a relatively short period of time, all
things considered. The difference between WWII and the ISW is presumably that
the humans have no friggin' idea of the intentions of the Kra'Vak (other than
Kill! Kill! Kill!).

Mark

> Laserlight said:

From: "Noam Izenberg" <noam.izenberg@jhuapl.edu>

> Tomb said:

Depends on the size of the forces being risked. Examples of what I mean by
"strategic guerilla warfare":

* The cruise of the SeeAdler in WW1. * "30 seconds over Tokyo" * The raids at
Telemark and elsewhere

> I think several Human groups will look to their own histories to

> won by the bombing of Berlin by british forces.

Another excellent example.

Read Eric Frank Russel's novel "Wasp" for what I'm talking about. It's all
about economy of force.

> Frankly, if humanity itself is under dire threat, somebody somewhere

We may loose Earth. (Nuke it from orbit...only way to be sure).

But most of the powers have off-earth assets. Some even have thier
capitals
off-Earth. So the miniatures would still be valid.

-----
Brian Bell bbell1@insight.rr.com
http://www.cygnusx1.info/