Maybe so, maybe not, but I bet the Apiata are!
If it does come to war, I think I may have a plan to end it quickly.
Apiata ships are at least as fast as anything we or the Cardasdians have got, and they have a big fleet. They also, at this point, have some experience with economy raiding.
If we can get an apiata battle group behind the front lines, it can zip around Cardassian space and destroy freighter after freighter, mining facility after mining facility, while having a good chance of avoiding their starbases and few remaining garrison warships.
Do enough damage, and I'll bet we can convince the cardassians that this war isn't worth it.
Yeah. Plan Epsilon-3-B(ee), variant codename "Float and Sting" does indeed contain some provisions along those lines. There's language in the plan for having the Apiata go on the offensive against the Cardassians, assuming the Cardies don't just throw their entire battle fleet straight at Apinae and leave the poor bee-girls too busy to do any such thing.
The only change I would consider is asking one or more EC ships to do their "sprint" thing to Lapycorias or Indoria. That would be a serious boon to any calculations on how much force to use against that map square. I'm unsure if it's wise, but it's something to consider.
The main reason I don't propose that is that I'd rather keep the Explorer Corps as a united body to increase its effect as a striking arm rather than parceling it out in penny packets. One ship, however powerful, can be cut off and destroyed. Four heavy ships working together require a fleet to oppose them.
This is particularly helpful in Apiata space, because it will mean that invaders pushing into Apiata territory (or Cardassian defenders trying to repel an Apiata attack) cannot "fan out" to cope with harassment attacks by individual Stingers or pairs or trios of same. If they try, they get hammered by four
Excelsiors. Conversely, if they concentrate to repel the attacks of a united Explorer Corps, they're leaving a lot of targets bare and vulnerable to Apiata raids.
Also, I am
really hoping we can start this mobilization plan soon. If we're lucky and quick, we can steal a march on the Cardassians and start reinforcing Indorion space and/or Lapycorias before they're ready to attack it.
I was under the understanding that if Cardassia declares for Celos negotiations are effectively over and it's war.
That is an assumption a lot of people are making, yes.
Me, I favor having the trigger for "state of emergency" be "visible evidence of large Cardassian fleets massing," because that constitutes an emergency under present conditions whether the Cardassians have formally declared their intent to support Celos or not.
Conversely, if the Cardassians declare for Celos but
don't overtly do anything, or if they do something like the Cuban Missile Crisis and send only a squadron or a convoy or something... That is simply
not a Federation-wide, existential emergency. If we try to declare a state of emergency in response to something like that, it may result in Sousa being in hot water with the Federation's political structure after the crisis ends.
