Quote:
Originally Posted by arcanus
Strength of numbers is a significant issue for Centrum, their Earth was shattered by nuclear exchange and biowarfare, the latter can be cured with modern science but the nuked areas and ruined ecosystem will still largely be uninhabitable.
The global population was decimated, infant mortality was 50% plus there may have genetic mutations and sterility from the bio weapons.
So even a century or so later their population is nowhere near Homelines, Centrum has accessed dozens of worlds whereabouts Infinity hundreds.
Centrum could opt to try and nuke Homeline, but it undoubtably has the same worry as Homeline has about Reich 5 what if we don’t completely take them out, they will retaliate and Centrum might not survive.
Despite its technological advantage Centrum isn’t in a position to crush Homeline
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Yeah, the population disadvantage is probably the biggest reason, or at least one that everyone at The Forum can agree on. It blames the Last War (Centrum excuse for everything they do), is something that can eventually be fixed, and lets everyone kick the can down the road.
Plus, of course, that Centrum just can't reach Homeline.
Unsaid is Centrum's inherent conservatism, unwilling to take on such a big project without absolutely needing to or general consensus. It took almost a century just to get to the Lockridge Protocols, for contacting regular inhabited worlds.
And outside of some well-trained Interworld agents, most of Centrum just isn't used to dealing with an enemy as advanced as Homeline. Centrum's experience is in much more overwhelming technological superiority, such as in Reclamation, where the advantage was as much about supply as tech level (post-Last War warlords might have had the same tanks as The Centrum, but couldn't build new ones or even really fuel the ones they had).
The whole existence of "Secundus" is still kind of shock to Centrum, even years later. The whole world society is based on centralized power, and the existence of a new power on roughly equal footing, even far away, has likely messed with Centran minds. And one doubts the Health Service has the kind of widespread therapists for dealing with it.
Centrum is a bit like China coming face-to-face with European explorers, or even the Native American empires at contact.