Robert asked Lois McMaster Bujold:

Do you think, if serious about it and not needing to remove the prince and Using the plasma mirror information, Aral or even Miles could have taken Escobar? Using a sucide pilot to block Beta from sending the mirrors? Boarding the ships instead of shooting at them?

Lois McMaster Bujold Mm, maybe, but more likely not. The Barrayarans might have gained temporary control in space, of the wormholes and maybe the orbitals. But if the purpose of the war was to annex a functioning planet, and not just reduce it to a cinder, that's ground war of a very ugly and expensive sort, with a very long and thin supply line. Escobar also has a considerable population advantage.

One must also consider the wider diplomatic context. Intimidating the neighbors is one thing; terrifying them into uniting against you, another, and more than two can play that game. Possibly by different rules. Cetagandan micro-surgically-genetically targeted biowar, anyone...? (Which, if the target planet can be quarantined behind wormholes, bears less risk of blowing back on the caster. Highly inadvisable if the opposing sides are occupying the same planet.)

Ta, L.

flag