For Want of a Nail

One intercepted communication. That was all it took to bring down a small ring of high-level Rhean government and corporate officials, all of whom were infiltrators installed into the hierarchies of Rhea by the infamous Centauri megacorporation, Morgan Industries. Following the events of the Port Garland Incident and the seizure of Morganite subsidiaries on Rhea, relations had considerably soured between CEO Nwabudike Morgan and his Rhean competitors, and as such he instructed his probe teams to begin work on Rhea to regain lost competitive advantage. Inserting themselves into the corporate and government hierarchies, the probe teams rose to high positions where they provided sensitive information to the hands of Morgan Industries, as well as subtly impeding policies Morgan deemed unfriendly that were on the path to implementation. Most damning of all was the fact that connections could be found that linked the Morganite infiltrators to the Planetary Governate as a whole, although direct Governate involvement could not be found. Though the Governate will claim to not be culpable, it is predicted that the events will create an anti-Centauri turn in Rhean public opinion, which may in turn cause Rhean entry to the developing conflict.

Undoubtedly so, for much of the intelligence swiped by Centauri spies concerned modified interdiction fields intended to prevent faster-than-light travel by methods other than hyperspace, much of it focused on Ordenreich and Rutian methods of FTL travel, slipping space. As of yet, Morgan Industries and the Ordenreich would likely be pleased to hear, their modifications of interdictor fields are not completely reliable, as there is still a chance for a ship to slip space and escape. The reason, however, the Rhean military is classifying this unreliability as a feature and not a bug is that sometimes craft that attempt it explode. (In other words, sure, we don't know if you're going to blow up but you don't know either. Unless you're a Rutian with future sight, I suppose. Bloody Rutians ruin all our bloody plans. ) The practical effect of this is that it makes it more difficult to engage in hit and run tactics against the Rhean fleet. An enemy fleet could escape the interdiction field by traveling away at sub-light speeds and then slip space or jump into hyperspace. In order for the Rhean fleet to place them back into the field, they would either need to catch up at sub-light speeds, which they conceivably could do, or they would need to drop their field simultaneously and pull off a quick hyperspace jump back on top of their enemy. This provides the enemy a chance to, if they are coordinated and quick enough, to escape altogether. If they aren't, they are likely to have ginormous Rhean warships on them again. The interdiction field bogs down travel speeds as well. While it makes enemy and friendly fighters easier to aim at, it's also potentially easier to dodge fire as well.

(OOC: I'll edit if these developments seem OP. I have to make some sort of technological advance. Can't be stagnant and remain a viable power.)

OOC: How would the interdiction field affect time-space dilation FTL?

(OOC: Give me more details and I'll give you a more detail beside technobabble involving gravity, which is how they prevent people from entering hyperspace. Must leave for work soon.)

OOC: Time-space dilation is exactly what it sounds like. Space in front of the ship contracts and space behind the ship expands. The contraction ahead of the ship allows for sub-light travel over a smaller distance which then expands behind the ship, giving an overall affect of FTL. Both the Centauri and the Herakleans use it. Heraklea uses it for normal-space FTL when the faster hyperspace is not available due to gravitic interference.

(OOC: Sounds similar to warp drive. I suppose it "pops" the bubble of normal space around the ship. The only thing I can think of that it wouldn't affect is a star gate. Also, the chance of explosion is very small, just to be fair. Less than one percent.)

(OOC: I guess interdictor fields would work on my guys if you got them to work against slipspace but the Ordenreich only relies on hit and run with its carrier groups. Building a drone is a dime a dozen for the Ordenreich so the strategy is for carriers to drop out of slipspace and deploy all drone fighters and bombers and slip back into slipspace. The drones would direct FOAB strikes and attack enemy fleets until the fleet or the drones are all destroyed. The Ordenreich has already been looking for ways to let fighter drones and bombers use slipspace so Ordenreich ships and stay off the front line entirely. Its a very indirect doctrine which I just wanted to make sure you were aware if you and I go to war and you decide to unleash the interdictor)

(OOC: So basically, it'd be a matter of us preventing your carriers from escaping for those particular instances of hit and run tactics. We have our own with Star Destroyers where we pop in for a few seconds over a planet, fire a quick broadside, and enter hyperspace. We've had missiles with hyperdrives, too. We have missiles equipped with hyperdrives, too, but not on the same scale as a FOAB. At some point, I'll probably have the Rheans attempt to redevelop a weaker Galaxy Gun as a bigger stick to a FOAB. It won't be planet destroying but it'd wreck a ship.)

(OOC: As it stands yes what you said is true, which is why the Ordenreich is looking into getting the drones to drop out of slipspace by themselves without the carriers have to drop out to deploy them)

(OOC: And the Rheans will be looking into redeveloping droid fighters more or less as soon as I find images not from the prequel movies. Removing quite a bit of their prejudices against AIs. Stuff like this or this.)