I'm still wondering re the starkiller mechanism. Manufacturing a billion engines & facilities on a billion asteroids is non-trivial work.
For example, the Lyrans (in the Ngoverse) have thousands of jump-capable ships made in a decade or so. Let's assume unlimited geometrical growth - Loonie "human von Neumanns" turning belts into shipyards into more hulls, all across the IS & periphery, going up an order of magnitude every 5 years or so.
So that's 10,000 ships in 5 years. 100,000 ships in 10 years. 1,000,000 ships in 15. 10,000,000 in 20. 100,000,000 in 25. 1,000,000,000 in 30.
Okay, you just spent 30 years turning thousands of systems into slag.
To kill one star.
Thing about von Neumanns, they take time. Yes, all the reward is in the last cycle. How many years ago did "the Enemy" start this?
Then there's something I (with some astronomical background) have problem with.
Mass of Sol: 2x10ex30 kg
Mass of an asteroid - let's riff the Expanse, and use 433 Eros - 7x10ex15 kg
Mass of a billion Eroses - 7x10ex24 kg. Or 0.000001 solar mass Or 0.0001% solar mass.
Cannonshop, there are more efficient ways to invoke stellar explosions! :thumbsup: Simplest way is disrupting core fusion. Without that supporting the mass of the star, you get collapse, and for a large enough star, you will get bang. You do that by inserting a damper (very fond of the Nova Bomb from Glen Cook's Starfisher trilogy), although the Singer from Alastair Reynold's Redemption Ark is nice hypertech.
Now maybe the billion asteroids also carry damper seeds, and shields maybe capable of penetrating solar fusion, and they used a billion so that at least some work ... but it still seems like a lot of work.