ImperiumSidhicum wrote:
I must point out that sending a whole
battlegroup of battleship-sized vessels into Imperial space for any reason is a very poor idea and would effectively amount to a declaration of war. It would be pretty much like the Russians openly taking a couple Kirov missile cruisers and Typhoon-class subs for a joy-ride along the US East Coast during the height of the 1983 Cold War crisis.
So I strongly suggest against deploying a battlegroup of Frenkish warships into Imperial space. Not only would they have to stray along the outer edges of Imperial star systems to avoid detection, making them effectively useless for the mission they were brought in for, they would become priority targets for every single Imperial Navy task force in the sector upon detection, and given the ease with which a single Imperial strike cruiser dispatched a dreadnought designed specifically to combat the Asimovs during the Lenin affair, it would be a pretty one-sided fight once any of those task forces found the Asimov battlegroup.
Deploying a single Asimov, custom-fitted with a stealth suite and the aforementioned tractor beam, however, would be a whole different thing. It could realistically avoid detection, and invite much less Sidh wrath if caught than a whole battlegroup - for the sake of good relations, the Sidhae might even let it off to home dimension with just a stern warning.
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And hello everyone, by the way! As you might have deduced by now, I'm the guy writing the Sidhae.
See, when I first proposed the idea, it was entertained on the basis that the group would (maybe) have support from the Earthbound Judicators (as I'm sure they would agree that Trotskaya needs to be stopped), and they just might agree that sending in Frenkish ships would be the best bet, considering they've been designed to hunt ships like the Mezghorye-class (and they might not want to embarass themselves by reporting an incident like this to their superiors, what with one of the Judicators going rogue and an Earthling going on a rampage back home in a stealth warship). And in that case, one of the Judicators might accompany the fleet as to provide clearance (perhaps with a cover story of the battlegroup being "mercenaries" for a "special mission" of said Judicator) when it inevitably gets detected by the Sidh Navy. Again, that was just the rough outline, so I went along with it.
But, if you don't think that will work, I can definitely settle on having one upgraded ship for that purpose. I just wanted about five for the purpose of giving myself "breathing room" when it comes to taking casualties, but (like you said) might not even have to take very many if I don't get caught.