BOTH THE HOTHRI and humans had star drives that were fairly efficient. Maximum speed was in theory unlimited, but navigationally, few ships could surpass ten light-years per day. Due to fuel costs and strain, most merchants and transports could actually travel at little more than a fifth of this speed. The entire FTL drive for the smallest ships was the size of a Ford van.
The most dramatic weapon system was actually totally defensive. This was the ship’s shields. The shield is actually a projection of the same system used for FTL flight. It acts by shunting the effects of opposing letters into the same otherspace that allows ships to travel at multiples of light. Most ships were shielded. Ships as small as corvettes could now generate screens powerful enough to protect against anything but multiple hits. Unfortunately if a shield receives more power than it could shunt aside, it would simply fail in a burst of sparks, often taking the ships engines with it as well.
The design of most Hothri ships often lacked the elegance of human space vessels. Only those which were designed to penetrate a planet’s atmosphere had any streamlining at all. These tended to natural forms emphasizing arcs and ovoids. The Hothri also preferred larger ships, on which they could be accompanied by a large number of their fellows. The insectoid aliens also preferred to fight in large formations and tended to advance cautiously. This was speculated to be a side effect of their group awareness. There had to be some reluctance to take losses when you feel a little bit of your fellow soldier’s pain. Only later was it found that the Hothri were much more capable of suspending this group sense than was suspected and rarely employed it unless aware of definite danger.
The Hothri were also reluctant to attack at any odds until they had achieved a definite advantage. This led to long pauses between battles and longer delays after any defeat. These periods of relative calm lulled many of Arista’s leaders into a false sense of security, but also provided extra time at crucial points during the war. Time that proved vital to Arista.
Another racial imperative meant the Hothri were unable to tolerate even the smallest pocket of resistance. Combined with their natural tendency toward caution, the need to react massively to every threat was reflected in nearly all of the Hothri’s tactics, both in space and during actual landings.
The ships of the Aristan Navy were initially comprised of fifty of the most recently designed human vessels. One-on-one, they repeatedly proved themselves superior to their insectoid opponents. Unfortunately the Hothri fleet outnumbered the Aristan by at least ten-to-one. The regular Aristan navy was supplemented by several hundred hastily-armed merchant ships. These were limited in combat effectiveness because few of them could be shielded effectively. Nearly half of the Aristan Navy was lost trying to defend trading outposts in other systems before the Aristan siege actually began. Mercenary ships filled only part of the gap.
The offensive weapons of both ships were comprised of both beam weapons and torpedoes. Most beam weapons were easily stopped by a ship’s screens. The beams often served more to soften a screen, thus enabling a torpedo to penetrate. It took a lot to cripple or destroy a ship, but when hit, most ships simply vaporized. Aerial mines using balloons or anti-grav units and smart bombs that seek out specific targets are used extensively to defend Arista. Neither side had bombs powerful enough to blow apart a world.
On a personal level, the intention was still to deliver enough energy into your opponent to disrupt his cell structure. Whether done by a sharp stone, a titanium and steel pellet, A plasma round, or a laser beam, the effect was the same. As always, armor in the Siege provided more of psychological than real protection.
There has never been an era when there was not a direct relationship between those who fight the wars and those who labor at home. In the middle ages it took several hundred peasants to support an armored knight and his retinue. In the twentieth century no real distinction was made between soldier and those who supplied them with the means to make war. Carpet bombing, and atomic weapons didn’t bother to determine who was carrying a gun, who made the gun, and who was cowering in a shelter. While less appreciated, and certainly less flamboyant, those who make the weapons have been just as important to a war effort as those who fire them. They can’t by themselves win the war, but they certainly can help lose it.