[FM/GM Scenario] How does your military respond?

[Exhack]

(Note: This thread has been posted in this forum for educational purposes.)

In this scenario, a protracted engagement between your fleet and that of an enemy force over a virgin system that lies on your national borders has resulted in heavy casualties and loss of materials and logistics support on both sides. At this point, a victory for either side will likely result in the effective destruction of both fleets.

To resolve this, the enemy commander has offered to resolve the conflict through a duel between designated combatants, either in a dogfight or battle of your choosing. You do not have any particular advantages in any field over the enemy commander in terms of outright power, as advantages in numbers are met by technology, or vice-versa, and it is likely that his duelist will have similar physical abilities to yours.

1) The losing side will have to surrender and cede over materials. Do you accept these terms?

-or-

2) The losing side must cede the system. Do you accept these terms?

Either way, if you do accept, on what terms would you have the duel fought, and would you honor the agreement if you lose/win?

 

[Ametheliana]

I can't believe nobody has responded! I would have guessed this would have a dozen replies!

I'm new to GM'ing and my plot's first mission isn't even up yet, but I will answer for the sake of it!

I wouldn't put the system up for grabs, not ever. And I wouldn't honor the agreement if I lost, either. The combatants? Myself and the enemy commander, of course!

 

[Legix]

Dig-It crashes into the enemy ship. Dhaval ordered everyone off for safety and crashed it into the bridge just to duel the enemy captain. Meanwhile, boobs are everywhere and there's a Mishhu-Neko frowning and complaining while an Otaku Minkan, Loli Freespacer, and Ecstatic Halfy all freak out over how epic the ramming was.

Dhaval wins and then demands to break down the entire ship... and then gets bored and starts cracking worlds in that system for all those sweet, sweet resources.

 

[Wes]

The Star Army might actually accept a duel if they felt the other side was honorable and trustworthy. For example, in a fight with the Star Army of Yamatai vs. the new Spacy of the Uesureyan Empire (Uesu's fleet) they might agree to both use only 5 ships per side of the conflict, and duel that way rather than exhaust whole, precious fleets.

 

[Fred]

I don't think Kotori would consider a duel unless it evened bad odds, proved while in a pinch to be a way to protect her crew by putting the crosshairs on her, or allowed her to achieve something important that would otherwise not possible should she miss the opportunity.

 

[raz]

2) The losing side must cede the system. Do you accept these terms?

Either way, if you do accept, on what terms would you have the duel fought, and would you honor the agreement if you lose/win?

The Kudhacari would accept the duel under the quoted option. They'd choose personal combat over a dogfight or the like, since they're pretty traditional at their core. If the Kudhacari champion lost the duel, their fleet would withdraw and cede the system as agreed. But then they'd probably just come back at a later date with more overwhelming forces to invade the world. Upon loss of the duel, the situation shifts from "who gets first rights?" to "we need this system for resources and it's held by a hostile power."

Were it a GM situation, it'd be weird because it'd just be a ship's worth of SAINT operatives. But they'd probably accept and use secret agent shenanigans to merc the enemy champion and/or terrorize the enemy fleet with aether demolitions, or some insane scheme. It wouldn't matter who won the duel because "Who Dares, Wins" and all that cool stuff.