One big issue is indoctrination. If we develop a detector (definitely possible) and a counter (and we are going to be doing research in that direction) that might well cause Reapers to panic.
How about coupling plug & play skills tech with Dr. Solus' brain shield tech when released to the civilian market? Or would Reapers panicking in this case be a bad thing?
Well, yes. Only it's a bit more than that. "If we counter their trump card with a trump card of our own that's pretty much the same, only better, it'll demoralize them more than using something different".
Was mostly stated as a joke. Was hearing DBZ Abridged Goku during the Freeza fight when I read it the first time, so...
@Hoyr. Where is the nearest Relay to earth?
The Charon Relay near Pluto? Or were you asking about Primary Relays?
it should be fairly straightforward to check the navigation logs in the disabled/destroyed Batarian fleet and pull the actual navigation data, at which point the Batarians' crimes are laid bare.
That seems like grounds for the Council to take Very Serious Interest in the accusations, but not quite a Zimmerman Note level affair. Looking at it dispassionately, the Batarians would rightfully retort that the humans have every incentive to lie about something like that (given that both parties are in a state of war), and the Council would very likely send Specters to investigate. The Batarians aren't likely to welcome the Specters (they're no longer a Citadel race, plus they likely have plenty to hide) but the Council will likely wait the weeks or months to hear back from their investigation teams to do any overt actions.
That isn't to say that the Council races will be sitting on their thumbs, however; I can't help but imagine that the STC memetically was not only in possession of many of the relevant facts of the matter but half the Batarian science teams were STC infiltrators in latex masks. The Asari Republics...I don't know how they'd react as a whole, but as others have pointed out I imagine that Huntress teams would probably 'just so happen' to be in the area while the Turians I can't help but imagine would schedule some exercises near a Relay into Batarian space.
Carriers are mostly "just" 1000m starships without a corresponding 1000m mass accelerator cannon (MAC). If we want to build carriers and not dreadnoughts, we can just research the 1000m ships tech and not the 1000m MAC tech (under the Mass Accelerator Weapons heading)
I'm sure this has already been asked and answered, but what is the advantage of using fighters rather than drones of equivalent weight? Drones don't draw salary, you can pack in more of them (even if all you're doing is cutting out the pilot's barracks aboard ship), and reaction times are pessimistically comparable.
So, had a thought about the Quarians (I know, I know, I've been helping to beat a dead horse here) and there's a quote from Hoyr that I've been having trouble tracking down that basically says that 'you have to employ an entire ship'. As I seem to recall, Mindoir is a growing colony thanks in no small part to one Revy Shepard, and I doubt that this growth is going to slow down during wartime, particularly since we have demonstrated that our defensive capabilities are...nontrivial. To that end, what do we think of the following;
-invite specific Quarian captains (generally from the civilian fleet) in for overhauls of their ships. Select for dovish attitudes, I suppose.
-coordinate with the local authorities (mayor of Landing, the administration of Mindoir as a whole, other business owners, etc) about what to do with a brief glut of skilled and semi-skilled laborers. Seems like a good time for public works projects to me.
-while the ship is laid up in drydock, those Quarians not overseeing their ship getting taken apart and put back together (which I anticipate will mostly be the engineering and administrative sorts, with occasional input from other departments) will be invited to pick up odd jobs the business leaders and civil authorities have decided on. I'm thinking about the medical staff doing stints at the Landing Hospital, helping with biotech research, etc., the agricultural experts apply some brain sweat at helping to fix some of the radiation damage near Landing (I know it's under control, but 'under control sooner' is better and 'situation is completely and satisfactorily resolved' is better), some Quarians might be hired to do a stint upgrading rural roads, someone will almost assuredly start up some bot fights somewhere, etc
-the key I think is to make sure that we don't invite any ships we can't employ the crew of in a reasonable and straightforward manner, and to coordinate with the Migrant Fleet about this (specifically Admiral vas Qwib Qwib). That is going to mean mostly smaller ships, especially near the beginning, but small ships need love too and smaller is probably better starting off.
In a related bit of news, I'm working my way through a scheme where we hire some Quarians to build a shipyard for us and sell custom-made cruiser weight civilian passenger liners to the Migrant Fleet. I haven't figured a way to make it presentable to the greater thread yet, but in general it's supposed to
-improve the lot of the average Quarian
-make PI money (selling ships) and experience
-gain social and political currency with the Migrant Fleet
-not overly strengthen the military (current sticking point)
-strengthen the doves' position (sort of leaning towards a charm offensive while they're groundside)
Can I get the naysayers to point out the flaws in these ideas? I ask that we already skip past the "if you give a Quarian a wrench they will use it to beat Geth about the head" and "the Admiralty and Captain's Conclave are not rational actors" arguments please.
It's just... there are certain tendencies in threads. Next up: what happens when Revy finds out.
