On 07Apr2019 0838, Phil Pugliese (via tml list) wrote:
> But, speaking of 'fleets', I'll never believe that there was any way
> that Dulinor could've even come close to stopping the 'Vengeance
> Fleet'.Illelish was, at best, a back-water sector/domain that never
> could've built up enough naval strength in such a short period of
> time.The 3I was just too cumbersome for that w/o some sort of 'full
> mobilization for war" at least a decade in advance. (War? What war?
> Strephon's administrators ask?)

The only reason the Core sector fleet would be any better would be that
its intended use was defence against another round of 'Barrack Emperors'
and frankly, a fleet that's completely un-used to battle would likely
crumple when a veteran frontier fleet came against it. I don't think
Dulinor being able to defeat it with the Illelish fleets is that
unreasonable, especially if he'd spent the last decade or so shifting
his fleets' emphasis from anti-piracy and small task force actions to
major fleet battles, both in training and (as much as he could without
attracting notice) composition.

> (The entire story of how only Lucan
> emerged alive (but now severely deranged) was just another 'zinger'
> that exceeded, by quite a bit, my ability to suspend disbelief)

He didn't start out deranged, just short tempered, and equipped with a
personality utterly unsuited to the office into which he was thrusted.
The stress of the job got to him, basically. There are plenty of
examples of this in history.

--
Rupert Boleyn <xxxxxx@gmail.com>
Chief Assistant to the Assistant Chief