It could be argued that the Polaris was destroyed in the first place because of Caitians, so their still at fault.
I mean against the Cardassians in total, not the proxy war now.
This will be looked at by the other powers as an example of what the Federation is and acts, expediency here could lead to major issue down the line cause we'd appear more militaristic than the Federation likely wants to be viewed as. This isn't just about lives but public perception, welcome to Grand Strategy!
@OneirosTheWriter thyne word is needed!
I'm perfectly fine with other powers thinking that blowing up our ships makes us much less interested in acting like their friends, and that we treat our affiliates preferentially.
I should also point out that the Cardies might be doing this to get a handle on what our fleet can do
Moral Imperative? How? Is the damage actively killing the crew? No? Then any action we take is a pretty direct action to effect the shape of the war. We can stay neutral it'll just annoy the playerbase cause it means we aren't the ones fighting, but we aren't the Klingons or the Romulans, or the Cardassians, we're the Federation we don't resort to violence unless theirs no other good option and their is at the moment. The Dawair are more likely to listen to us if they know they destroyed one of our ships but we aren't resorting to crushing their puny race. History will judge how we do this and this can easily be seen as a provocation by outsiders.
I don't see that many practical benefits. Things that come to mind:
No one's clamoring to go to war with the Dawair.
The Dawair might see things differently
Starfleet lost a ship cause the Caitians got into this mess we just got dragged into this, relationship with the Caitian is not more important than how everyone views the Federation and Starfleet, we aren't going to make them an enemy like that if their close to membership, and not helping them might sting but it fall in line with what they know the Federation stands for.
I'm talking about you saying that players will get annoyed by staying neutral and not fighting. Don't try to change the subject to IC stuff when I'm talking solely about OOC stuff.
We have to look at this from an IC perspective OCC if we only look at the rewards the choice is obvious but we can't, we need to look at the broader picture of the situation in setting and imagine how the people within might react to our action. Also SV will always bitch about something interesting going on in the quest we're not a part off it's what SV does.
