Why Hera? by Aliasse

GENERAL DISCUSSIONS

Why Hera?

POSTED BY: ALIASSE
UPDATED: Sunday, May 3, 2009 09:25
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Thursday, April 30, 2009 10:01 AM

Is there any canon on why Hera was such a key position that the battle there is so decisive and that each side is prepared to sacrifice hundreds of thousands of soldiers for it?

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Thursday, April 30, 2009 10:17 AM

NVGHOSTRIDER

IMHO only:

Logistically Hera is a the largest of the outermost Boarder planets. I would imagine the Alliance was poised to amass men and material on Hera not only to defend the Core planets, but also as a strong base to jump to any of the Rim planets, (depending on the orbital cycles).

I'm not sure of actual canon that details "Why Hera?", but both sides may have just had the same idea and were willing to sacrafice for that chance.

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Thursday, April 30, 2009 10:44 AM

BYTEMITE

Hera was one of the three main border planets that went for Independence. The other two were Shadow and Persephone.

The only stuff Hera was really good at producing, as I recall, was food. Take out Hera and Shadow, and you took out the Independent's food supply.

But I also agree with nvghostrider about strategic location.

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Thursday, April 30, 2009 10:55 AM

ALIASSE

Which makes me wonder why they didn't take it out earlier?

Because they wanted to prolong the war? - how long does the war need to go on for to effect the cover-up of what happened on Miranda?

I must say, I find it really hard to imagine how an interplanetary war would be won and fought, in the sense that I can't imagine how it would be different from the terrestrial ones that we know about. Or maybe it would be essentially the same.

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Thursday, April 30, 2009 11:10 AM

BYTEMITE

Thing is, there's definitely some similarities to our land wars, because the Independents didn't have the firepower to go toe to toe against the Alliance's cruisers. So they went to the ground and entrenched themselves, and the Alliance had to follow them down or bomb them out because they wanted to put down the rebellion so bad.

Comparing it to a ground war in our times isn't far off... Except you have to try to imagine a war taking place across an entire planet.

I figure the Alliance went after Persephone first, because that planet sounds like it was the most industrialized. The Alliance thought be denying them the manufacturing capabilities on Persephone, the Independents wouldn't be able to fight anymore.

Ha!

Judging by the underworld-ly connections of the name, Persephone was probably a smuggler's haven even before the war. Alliance settled in for occupation, but couldn't stop all the exports... Still, it probably did strangle supplies for the Independents pretty well. But so long as the Independents had food and, hell, probably even rocks to throw, they'd keep fighting. So the Alliance went for both Shadow and Hera next... Only they made the classic blunder of stretching their forces too thin. Remember, these are whole worlds they have to cover, rooting out resistance.

Eventually, I figure Shadow's sterilization and Serenity Valley happened around the same time, as the Alliance got impatient playing around. The surrender at Serenity Valley may even have happened as a result of word of Shadow's destruction, kind of like the Atomic Bomb drops on Japan.

At least, that's how I picture it happening. There might have been pockets of resistance out on the Rim too, but the major campaigns probably were all about the big three.

Going by the time line suggested by the Serenity movie, Miranda happened about 12 years ago, just before the war started. The movie was about 7 to 8 years after the war ended. So the war lasted about 4 to 5 years, by my reckoning.

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Thursday, April 30, 2009 11:22 AM

ALIASSE

If you joined the Alliance military, who did you think you were training to fight? There was no 'other', in the sense of another species or another universe that might attack. So was it just a career, without any thought that there might be some real fighting? Obviously people from the Core might well think of Borderers and Rimmers as 'other', but to the extent of being willing to fight and kill them? This interests me. I can see how they would come, during the course of the war, to see non-Core folk as the enemy, but they wouldn't have trained with that mindset.

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Thursday, April 30, 2009 11:34 AM

BYTEMITE

I think for a long time, their military functioned as little more than an interplanetary police force. Military research seems to be geared towards population control and anticipating crime.

Ground troops probably began recruitment and training in response to Alliance propaganda about growing discontent on the Rim and the desire for Unification. All to cover up Miranda, of course.

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Thursday, April 30, 2009 12:16 PM

ALIASSE

And Durren Haymer? - he would have been working in bioweapons before the war, even if he exploited his expertise during the war to loot. I'm assuming he would have been part of the secret scientific wing of the military that was developing the Pax - maybe not that particular project but one like it.

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Thursday, April 30, 2009 1:01 PM

TDBROWN

The QMx Map of Serenity Valley, based on the one used as set dressing on the show and in the film (In mal's quarters), has something interesting on it. The Northeastern end of the valley rim was the location of the Firefly Shipworks (which produced militarized version of the mark 3 for the Browncoats) and the Odin Iron Works There were also several Blue Sun Corporation interests on the planet, such as the food processing plant located northwest of the Valley. So... major strategic value, and messing with Blue Sun property. All good reasons for the Alliance to want Hera very badly.

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Thursday, April 30, 2009 4:41 PM

RYCE

I read the post title, and my first thought was not Hera the planet, but Hera the person from BSG. Why Hera? Because she's one of a kind :-)

I'm a dork.

No power in the 'verse can stop me!

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Thursday, April 30, 2009 8:59 PM

ALIASSE

Quote:
Originally posted by TDBrown:
The QMx Map of Serenity Valley, based on the one used as set dressing on the show and in the film (In mal's quarters), has something interesting on it. The Northeastern end of the valley rim was the location of the Firefly Shipworks (which produced militarized version of the mark 3 for the Browncoats) and the Odin Iron Works There were also several Blue Sun Corporation interests on the planet, such as the food processing plant located northwest of the Valley.

B]

Wow. Thanks for that. Once again, even now, I'm amazed by the level of detail in the show. Blue Sun owning interests near Serenity Valley makes you realize how much Blue Sun must have influenced/directed the military - Blue Sun's strategy was military strategy.

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Saturday, May 2, 2009 11:23 PM

JEWELSTAITEFAN

Quote:
Originally posted by Aliasse:
Is there any canon on why Hera was such a key position that the battle there is so decisive and that each side is prepared to sacrifice hundreds of thousands of soldiers for it?

Much of the following comes from the QMX Map of the Verse, and the White Paper upon which it was based. The Map was approved by Joss and Universal, thus being fairly canon. These statements do conflict with other replies in this thread.

Persephone is a Core world. It orbits Protostar Lux along with Pelorum, and Lux orbits White Sun, the Core Sun.

Murphy is a Protostar orbiting the Georgia Sun, and Hera, Shadow, and Aphrodite orbit Murphy, all being border worlds (but not as far as Rim worlds). The year 2506 marked the greatest proximity between Lux and Murphy, and thus the jump from Core to Border was shortest by using Persephone along with Hera and Shadow, making them the major ports as well as the most strategically important, for both sides.

Shadow was a pre-emptive strike, early in the war. Mal had not departed Shadow until it was bombarded into ruin (as I understand). He was a volunteer after that, and early in the war - recall Battle of DuKhang earlier in 2511, already commanding some.

The war lasted 5 years. Seems to have started 2506, ends 2511. Pilot Serenity is 6 years after the end, 2517 (aired subscript on broadcasts in 2002) and BDM Serenity is 8 months later, 2518. Twelve years before that was spring 2506. You may peruse the timeline threads in Episode Forum.

Persephone was Alliance-supporting. Shadow and Hera were Independence-minded.

Allegories to earth warmaking can be found in WWII in the pacific. The island-hopping campaigns were essential to both the Japanese, to combat the Americans, and to the Americans, to combat the Japanese. Aircraft of the day did not have great range, especially with heavy bomb payloads, so capturing and maintaining island airfields was essential to the victory plan.
Without having fairly close ports of Persephone and Hera, there would be large jumps across space, vulnerable to space battles, mining, nets, etc. In WWII it was submarines, torpedoes, mines, etc.
Prior to the discovery of the Americas, rulers strove to control what they could see, thus the mediterrainean (middle of the earth, or center of the earth) fought over those lands, then the invention of hay moved civilizations north, where Yurpeen rulers sought to conquer the known worlds. The deserts between Mediteranian and Far East isolated the 2 civilizations, allowing the Asian peoples to war amongst themselves, assuming there was nothing else to control.

Might also see thread #38011 - "what started the war?"

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Sunday, May 3, 2009 8:37 AM

ALIASSE

I'm much obliged, Jewelstaitefan.

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Sunday, May 3, 2009 9:25 AM

BYTEMITE

Quote:
Shadow was a pre-emptive strike, early in the war. Mal had not departed Shadow until it was bombarded into ruin (as I understand).

I don't understand this part. How did Mal survive the bombardment? From what I've heard, Shadow was hit so hard it was turned into little more than a bit of charcoal, all the atmosphere burned off. Supposedly no one can live there anymore.

Also, the Serenity Blue Ray disc has a database file on the planets that says Persephone was Independent.

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