Milieu Overview?

[aramis]

If the general Imperial societal response is to not run from the Wave when it is decades away and panic when it is almost upon their descendants, what would be the responses of the other Coreward societies? Would they really be any different?

The Vilani, in general. Restored Vilani empire or no Rebellion, would they respond any differently?
Gashikan
The Julians
The less mixed Vargr states
and of course My Little Ponies of Death

The Zhodani set aside for the moment. Regardless of speed or deadliness, the Wave is a double whammy to the Zhos.

When one can expect 7-8 score instead of 3-4, it's clearly going to affect one's point of view. (There's some evidence that the nearly 4 has altered heavily the expectations of the general population from when it was trimodal ¼, 1, or 3½ score)

(Some vilani will hit more than 10 score years...)

But getting a reaction to it requires knowing it's coming, getting news faster than it travels, that news including its depth and speed accurately, and that news being believed.

The Vilani are unlikely to trust Zhodani sources. The Darrians are unlikely to, as well; they've suffered from the 4th and 5th frontier wars... Since the Sword Worlds kept probing the border. (See CT-Spinward Marches Campaign) It did prevent some 20% of the Sword Worlders from engaging the Imperials during the 5FW.

The Darrians have no history of this. They were almost completely annihilated by the Maghiz and recovered in a very sporadic manner; each world left to its own devices.
The most obvious thing to point out is that they have no central authority, they are a confederacy so each polity (world) representative will have different views on how to cope. They even have a branch of the confederation government that is responsible for settling the disputes between member worlds, hardly an example of singing from the same songsheet.

The Darrian Confederation is, at least in CT AM 8 Darrians, p 21, no longer truly a confederacy in practice; it's a noble assembly leading a bunch of worlds but with a central bureacracy that the people demanded and got - not quite to the point of a welfare state... but AM8 also makes clear that they have a very common identity.

The last paragraph notes that the Council can, and does, create central bureaucratic committees to solve specific problems at a confederation level.

 

[Grav_Moped]

The Vilani are unlikely to trust Zhodani sources. The Darrians are unlikely to, as well; they've suffered from the 4th and 5th frontier wars...

But they may well be able to get information they trust anyhow. Project Longbow II (wiki, -- note: secret) will detect the massive disruption (evacuation fleets, and worlds going dark on the RF spectrum at the very least), and a fleet of (Experimental) Collector-3 scouts could pass through Consulate space undetected* to view the Wave first-hand. (Jumping staggered on the route so only one set of ships gets zapped; the remainder perform reconnaissance-by-potato** to find the limits and effect of the effect, then head back ASAP).


--------------
*well, undetected long enough for it to not matter anyhow. And honestly (pun intended, because Zhodani), the Zhodani would probably let them pass even if they did find them, once they figured out what they were up to.

**like navigation-by-potato in heavy fog: Have a barrel of potatoes on the bow of your boat. Toss one forward from the bow every few minutes. If you don't hear a splash, turn!

 

[aramis]

But they may well be able to get information they trust anyhow. Project Longbow II (wiki, -- note: secret) will detect the massive disruption (evacuation fleets, and worlds going dark on the RF spectrum at the very least), and a fleet of (Experimental) Collector-3 scouts could pass through Consulate space undetected* to view the Wave first-hand. (Jumping staggered on the route so only one set of ships gets zapped; the remainder perform reconnaissance-by-potato** to find the limits and effect of the effect, then head back ASAP).


--------------
*well, undetected long enough for it to not matter anyhow. And honestly (pun intended, because Zhodani), the Zhodani would probably let them pass even if they did find them, once they figured out what they were up to.

**like navigation-by-potato in heavy fog: Have a barrel of potatoes on the bow of your boat. Toss one forward from the bow every few minutes. If you don't hear a splash, turn!

Longbow is unable to note effects of an FTL wave... the light from the wave is slower than the wave. Heck, even for a perfectly C-speed, the effects will only be visible once it hits you.

 

[Grav_Moped]

Longbow is unable to note effects of an FTL wave... the light from the wave is slower than the wave. Heck, even for a perfectly C-speed, the effects will only be visible once it hits you.

Fair point. On the other hand, if there are rumors that get passed via FTL traffic (and I don't think even the Zhodani would be able to keep it totally suppressed), that might warrant sending a Collector-drive scout fleet -- though perhaps not quite on the same scale.

 

[mike wightman]

Have you spotted the basics physics flaw with Longbow as described?

Event A - say a world hit by the wave - takes place 2000 ly away.

Longbow is able to use its superduperness to observe said event.

Trouble it it takes 2000 years for the information about A to reach Longbow, ie it took place in the past.

The FTL wave hits you before event A is observabel, for the STL wave if you can observe the effects you are being hit by the wave.

 

[Grav_Moped]

for the STL wave if you can observe the effects you are being hit by the wave.

If it's STL rather than traveling at 1.0c, you get some warning, dependent on how much slower than c it's traveling.

But otherwise, yeah.

 

[aramis]

If it's STL rather than traveling at 1.0c, you get some warning, dependent on how much slower than c it's traveling.

But otherwise, yeah.

at 0.999 C, 1000 Pc gives 3.26 years. At 0.999 999 C, 28.57716 hours (a day and a watch).

We know news travels x-mail about 3.3 pc per jump, but don't have a good canonical reference for flights per week; I'll figure both daily departures and once a week departures....
once a week is 52 jumps per year, but only about 45% will arrive in time for second jump without delay; This means 45% 2j/2wk and 55% 1j/2wk, so ((2*0.45)+(1*0.55))*(52/2)=(0.9+0.55)*26=1.45*26= 37.7 J/year, averaging 3.3 Pc each jump, for about 124.41 Pc/year.
Once a day makes the average about 8 days per jump (allowing handling time), for 45.6 jumps per year. and about 150 Pc/Year.
I don't recall the speed of the wave nor the length of the pulse...