Ite! Was browsing through the old archives a bit, and discovered a bit about those Achultaani punching out at the Jurai from within the *Core*, not from outside the Galactic rim like I'd thought. Which is, ahm, a bit of a problem. Personally, and also big-picture.

Personal's kinda obvious - Seiaki's from the Juraiian Core. 'Long bout Act II, she'll be on the front lines of a totally unexpected invasion, and only thing she'll be able to do is lead the Exodus. Which will not save enough people to ever give her an Unbroken Night's Sleep, ever. And that's Not where I want to go with her.

(Okay, so I could just move the origin. Don't solve the other prob, tho.)

Other problem seen is the scale of the attack. That "1 pixel = 100 ly" scale makes precise measurements kinda tough, but I'd guess that the inner border of Juraiian space is about 4000ly from side to side.

Which sounds plenty large, 'til you realize the Achultaani are gonna be hitting it with a *million* ships. About two thousand ships per linear ly. Each of which is about 20km long.

Just can't see a force that big being willing to attack just the Juraii. They'll broaden their range, hit parts of the Humanx and the Lyrans. (And in Cameron, hot knife through butter time.)

Now if the Achultaani show up from outside the Rim, course, this all kinda vapes. The *outside* border of Juraiian space is about a third of the rim. And it should make more sense than trying to stuff a million monster genocide ships into a teensy-tiny-radiation-frying galactic core. *And* it puts my avatar well and nicely away from the first fighting. :) Comments?

There's no particular reason why they should be hitting the Juraiian Core, no. OTOH, they're not actually coming from inside the core - Achultanni have excellent radiation tolerance, but not -that- good. They're hitting pretty much straight 'down', because their home base is a largish globular cluster about 10-15 thousand lightyears 'above' the galactic plane.

And, again, the central areas surrounding the junction termini in each of the major Duchies could be considered a 'core' sector in its own right - the spaces equidistant between the system Jurai and the system Gloris are about as, ah, frontier as the areas where the Empire Jurai brushes up against the core.

That is, the Empire was first established in the system Jurai and the three termini, and radiated out from each of them until they became contiguous(sp?).

The Empire's rule would be weakest, I think, in the rimward sectors of Jurai itself - which would conveniently put you reasonably far away from the sceduled invasion zone.

The Juraiian method of rulership, I think, would amount to saying "Okay, accept that you're not independant, pay some lip service to the Emperor, pay for a couple regiments of ground troops - you'll get 'em if you need 'em - and most of all -don't build any starships- and you'll get access to our trade networks and technological databases along with the right to vote for your sector representatives to the House of Commons. Oh, and the five-thousand ship strong fleet orbiting with me says that 'no' is not an acceptable answer. It'll come back if you decide to change your mind about saying 'yes' after the deal is settled. In the meantime, have a nice life and try not to let any local disagreements wreck your economy too badly."

That's it. A member world can have any kind of government or customs or anything else it likes, including system defenses and such, so long as it doesn't build any ships with the endurance for interstellar travel. It can even go to war (with itself or other member worlds), so long as there's no damage to economic infrastructure.

Of course, trade between member worlds is strongly encouraged, and -this- is the key to the Empire. The nobility own the only starships. Thus, -all- -trade- passes through their hands (and, since a treeship can access and travel in -either- of the hyper bands the Spacing Guild has essentially -no- presence in the Empire Jurai). The breeding of treeships is monopolized by the throne. A treeship, of course, is not free.

The cost is in service - at specific, standardized points in the tree's lifespan, it's brought to one of the Imperial fiefs (those being the four systems associated with the wormhole junction), fitted a new, military shell (the tree itself is only the lenslike piece, which acts as the control center, hyperdrive(s) and power source and has sensors, weapons, drives, and suchlike added on as needs, tastes, and means dictate) and operated as a unit of the Imperial fleet for a standard period of time, after which point it's pulled out of the military shell (which belongs to the throne) and it goes back to being the owner's sole property. Fitting, operation, and other 'routine' charges are at the -owner's- expense, not the throne's. Damages incurred in the line of duty are handled free of charge.

Also, the throne doesn't -have- to sell to anyone who's willing to pay, and can both refuse further sales to a noble house that abuses its priviledges (by, say, price fixing) and undercut them by favoring a competitor, so Azusa has a fairly sizable stick to back up his rule.

So, subject worlds build things and trade with each other, the nobility own all the shipping lines, and the emperor owns all the shipyards.

Ummm... *sweatdrop* I guess I had more in mind than I realized... Anyway, this is mostly adapted from the Ahb system of government in Crest of the Stars.

Blessed be.
-n

>Ummm... *sweatdrop* I guess I had more in mind than I realized... Anyway, this is mostly adapted from the Ahb system of government in Crest of the Stars.

Makes sense since in the later acts the ahb are supposed to be an offshoot of the Juraii.

Hmmm. I'd thought the Juraiian empire didn't quite stretch to the Core's edge, gomen. (The pretty color map showed a fairly wide stretch of space - one or two sectors deep, which I guess is about fifteen hundred ly or so - between the inner edge of the Empire of Jurai and the border of the radiation zone.)

The problem I have with moving the story out to the Rim is that it's far away from everything *except* Jurai. I'd hoped for a spot where Seiaki can encounter elements from other parts of the Spiral, and the coreward edge of Jurai is good for that - right up next to the Lyrans and the Humanx, and a few other possibilities as well. And this may still work out - I'll fuss a more coherent area writeup and see what works.

Was thinking about the Juraiian Act II timeline, tho, based on the above info, here's what came out:


Early-Mid Year 1: The Achultaani drop (literally) into the middle of the Duchy of Glorias, throwing asteroids around and trashing treeships mightily. Juraii goes OHSHIT, and frantically begins a military callup while Achultaani scout forces go off in all directions.

End of Year 1: The Achultaani scout groups have carved out an area of space about 3000-4000ly in diameter. The leading edge of their attack runs into the Glorias system, and they move in to siege.

April-June Year 2: The Battle of Glorias. Tenchi Masaki is able to surprise the Achultaani with a strike force led through the Juraiian wormhole, leading to a reversal about as intense as the Siege of Earth in Weber's books.

Late Year 2 - Mid Year 4: Achultaani and Juraiian forces are concentrated, and skirmishes and probing engagements occur along a front ten thousand light years long. Neither side is fully aware of the weaknesses of the other, and the war settles into a bloody stalemate.

Mid-Late Year 4: The Great Betrayal. Somehow, the Achultaani get vital data about Juraiian astrography and ship deployments, enough to convince them to take up the offensive. Their forces gather in a spearhead, ignoring the bleeding ulcer of the Glorias system, and punch straight for Jurai itself.

Late Year 5: The Juraiian Grand Fleet, under the command of Tenchi Masaki, successfully traps the bulk of the Achultaani, destroying its best combat units and cutting the rest off from home. (The battle takes place near the Zeta Triangulis system, natch.) It's a pyrrhic victory, though, with the Grand Fleet itself almost destroyed as an independent fighting force. And of course, Act III then kicks off almost immediately.

Work?

This looks good.

If you're concerned about approach vector, then have them come 'down' on the coreward region of Jurai and spread rather than coming in on a flat vector.

Since even a scouting force of Achultaani is in the thousands, with a main force of millions, it shouldn't be a big deal to have them relatively concentrated for their size.

Drakensis > If you're concerned about approach vector, then have them come 'down' on the coreward region of Jurai and spread rather than coming in on a flat vector. <

That's what I had had in mind, yeah. Sorry if that wasn't clear.

Seiaki > Hmmm. I'd thought the Juraiian empire didn't quite stretch to the Core's edge, gomen. (The pretty color map showed a fairly wide stretch of space - one or two sectors deep, which I guess is about fifteen hundred ly or so - between the inner edge of the Empire of Jurai and the border of the radiation zone.) <

Fnord-san does the pretty color maps based on the sketchy bitmaps that I put together; the one at http://www.tcnj.edu/~baxter3/wormholes.bmp is both the most recent of those and the one I'm most satisfied with.

You'll note that Jurai's claimed 'territory' goes all the way in.

Seiaki > The problem I have with moving the story out to the Rim is that it's far away from everything *except* Jurai. I'd hoped for a spot where Seiaki can encounter elements from other parts of the Spiral, and the coreward edge of Jurai is good for that - right up next to the Lyrans and the Humanx, and a few other possibilities as well. And this may still work out - I'll fuss a more coherent area writeup and see what works. <

A point I think you're missing - one of the Manticore Junction's termini is along the Juraiian Rim. Take a moment to trace where -else- the Manticore Junction leads. While that system, and the shortest route between it and the system Jurai, might be of major concern to the empire's Powers That Be, there's pretty much nothing else significant in that stretch of space. Which means that it fills the neccessary criteria of being loosely controlled yet accessable to the outside universe better than anywhere else in the empire.

After all, Arrakis may be the center of the universe, but Manticore is its crossroads.

Seiaki > Was thinking about the Juraiian Act II timeline, tho, based on the above info, here's what came out: <

*snip* Yeah, I like that. Canavaral, this is Houston. You are go for launch.

Blessed be.
-n

By the way, I figure that the Duke of Glorias is Seiryo (or else Seiryo's father/grandfather). Seiryo, as a reminder, is the guy Asuza tried to set up as Ayeka's fiance, back before anyone knew Tenchi existed.

Guess what *he* thinks about Mister Estrogen Brigade? ^_^