Pebbles: The Anthlogy in Progress

[lowrolling]

The Blakists are showing why they are suitable only for hunting down.

[croaker]

He knew that, the First Circuit, the First Precentor, and the Primus all knew it. They'd even embraced that fact wholeheartedly. They'd already ordered Comstar's response, the solution meant to put an end to the Blakist threat permanently.

 And yet, somehow Victor couldn't escape the nagging fear that this was exactly what the Blakists wanted.

Ahh, Case White, aka ComStar's Big Mistake.

[Liam's Ghost]

-Dieron, Early February-

 "First strikes hit airbases, star ports, and the Fortress itself," Edwin Amis explained. "After that, they dropped warheads on each of the planet's major population centers. Tactical weapons, probably in the fifty kiloton range, fused for ground bursts to kick up as much fallout as possible." It was a strange, terrifying, horrifying concept, but he knew they had gotten off relatively light compared to just how much force the Word of Blake had proven able to unleash on a world.

 Living proof of that was being projected before him by a two way HPG connection to somewhere in the Free Rasalhague Republic. Even though the relatively low resolution of the signal, General Caradoc Trevena looked haggard, almost drained of life from the combination of acute radiation sickness and the chelation agents drawing the radioactive poisons out of his body. One of tens of thousands of victims of the massive strike on Tukkayid. Initial estimates from both Tukayyid and Dieron suggested that the human cost on Dieron was likely to be much higher, but that was only because of how much more densely populated the planet was. If the Blakists had delivered the same number and yield of weapons on Direon, the casualties would have been in the tens, maybe hundreds of millions.

 "What are the Blakists up to now?" General Trevena asked.

 "Stripping the shipyards bare," Amis said. "Anything useful they can get their hands on. The Dark Claw, the Lioness, and the Haruna are all on their way out of the system, along with everything from jumpships to dropships to what looks like big pieces of the stations themselves. They've been at it for days, and have basically been ignoring the planet since."

 "I almost thought it was a trap," he continued. "Like they were trying to bait us out of the Fortress and catch us while we were trying to handle the humanitarian disaster they created. Makes me sick to think of it, but I almost didn't give the order."

 "General Amis..." General Trevena said, though it was clear he was struggling to find the right words. "Your troops are still in fighting trim?"

 "Around eighty percent," Amis said. "We had time to get most of the 19th into the Fortress before the missiles hit, though we lost ground troops aiding the evacuations and our aerospace forces are pretty much gone. 3rd Dieron is roughly in the same shape." Once again, from a relative point of view they had gotten off lightly. The 21st Striker Regiment, having been moved to Tukayyid at the end of last year, had been caught at ground zero of multiple strategic nukes without anything close to Fortress Dieron to provide protection. None of them survived. "My manpower is tied up in disaster relief, though." Amis added. "Even if the Blakists had left us jumpships, the 19th won't be going anywhere at the moment."

 "We can get you transports," Trevena said, seemingly ignoring Amis' primary objection. Amis could have taken offense, but he was smart enough to understand why.

 "How bad is it, really?" He asked. "The net is flooded with claims..." To hear the various news channels and private info-chains tell it, the Blakists were everywhere, secretly working with and against everybody, leaving untold devastation wherever they went. And the fall of the Star League had taken with it many of the more reliable information sources SLDF units had. Hell, not more than an hour ago, a report had come across Amis' desk claiming that the Lyrans had been the ones to attack Tukayyid, led by their lost battlecruiser the Ygdrassil, in retaliation for Comstar colluding with the Word of Blake.

 And these claims, running freely through the HPG network and planetary networks too fast and in too great a number to even process much less verify, were having an affect. Fear, distrust, uncertainty... They were hard enemies to fight, especially with the Word of Blake actively burning worlds as they went.

 "The worst part is that we don't know for sure," Trevena said. "Tharkad, Luthien, and New Avalon are cut off. We can confirm strikes on Tukkayid, obviously, as well as Coventry and Skye. We know for certain that half a dozen planets closer to Terra have already fallen to the Word of Blake, or have chosen to side with them to avoid an attack. They may have held off actually invading Dieron this time, but you can probably count on a ground assault sooner rather than later.  Beyond that, we're struggling with confirming or even keeping up with the reports coming in. We've got credible reports of a ship in Free Worlds League colors at tharkad, and actual footage of one of the League's brand new ships bombarding Skye. Possible ties between the Blakists and Black Dragon Society in the Combine. Claims that the Capellans and Word of Blake, or the Word of Blake and House Hasek are somehow working together raiding the shared borders."

 We can confirm... we know... we're struggling... we've got... After the vote to disband the League, the SLDF had been left in limbo, and the Intelligence service had been no exception with most of the former member states now refusing to cooperate or allow SLDF intelligence personnel to operate freely. Amis knew full well that when General(?) Trevena said "we", what he was actually talking about was Comstar, one of the only institutions still working with the SLDF. And he wasn't sure how he felt about that.

 "I'd say we'll do our best to hold out when the attack comes," Amis said. "But I don't think that's what you're hoping for."

 Trevena closed his eyes for a moment, seeming to gather some of his remaining strength. "The Star League is gone," he said. "The only thing any of us still wearing an SLDF Uniform answer to right now is our conscience. I couldn't give you orders before, and I'm certainly not going to try now."

 "But," Amis said.

 "But," Trevena agreed, "You and I both know that sitting in place waiting for the next attack is only going to end one way. The only way we survive this war is by putting a stop to the Word of Blake before they burn everything to ash."

 He was right, of course. Amis didn't even need convincing. "If you're asking me if I want to hit back, then absolutely. We'd need transport, and some sort of escort. Making a run on a Blakist world without something to counter their WarShips is suicide. And we need time to get the situation under control here before we move. I'm not going to abandon Dieron while we still have thousands of people dying in the streets from starvation and sickness."

 "Fair enough," Trevena said. "I think we can arrange all of those things. I'll be in touch soon to show you what we'll be working with."

[lowrolling]

They are going to play right into the WOB's mechanical hands and lose a lot more regiments at Mars and Terra. The better strikes would have been at Thorin or one of the protectorate planets.

[Daryk]

Probably, but as Liam outlined, they have no way of knowing that.

[Liam's Ghost]

Author commentary
  Something I have been wrestling very hard with is to avoid just "fixing" the mistakes characters made during the Jihad. It's important to me that these characters are still, to the best of my ability, the same people they were in canon, with the same biases, assumptions, and ambitions. Basically, if the inciting event hadn't happened, the jihad would have proceeded in the same manner, and the changes we are seeing ripple from that inciting event.

 Of course not all of those assumptions, biases, and ambitions are clearly laid out in the canon, and neither are all the people making them (and we shouldn't expect them to be, that would be an impossible work that would make Tolkien cry). So I have to fill those gaps with my own assumptions, biases, and ambitions, and hope the result at least feels both plausible and entertaining.

 TLDR, there was always very little chance Case White could have been avoided, because Gavin Dow still be Gavin Dow. But the chain of events leading to it means what form it will take is going to change. For better or for catastrophically worse? That remains to be seen.

[Cannonshop]

Author commentary
  Something I have been wrestling very hard with is to avoid just "fixing" the mistakes characters made during the Jihad. It's important to me that these characters are still, to the best of my ability, the same people they were in canon, with the same biases, assumptions, and ambitions. Basically, if the inciting event hadn't happened, the jihad would have proceeded in the same manner, and the changes we are seeing ripple from that inciting event.

 Of course not all of those assumptions, biases, and ambitions are clearly laid out in the canon, and neither are all the people making them (and we shouldn't expect them to be, that would be an impossible work that would make Tolkien cry). So I have to fill those gaps with my own assumptions, biases, and ambitions, and hope the result at least feels both plausible and entertaining.

 TLDR, there was always very little chance Case White could have been avoided, because Gavin Dow still be Gavin Dow. But the chain of events leading to it means what form it will take is going to change. For better or for catastrophically worse? That remains to be seen.

It seem to me vanishingly unlikely that Case White could've worked out any other way-it's like how the FCCW featured enough ramming attacks to become a meme-it's rooted in the basic assumptions that have to be prevalent for the actions to make sense, imho.

To wit: Comstar (or any other faction) launching a massive naval assault via the most predictable entry without so much as a cursory reconnaissance just on the power of "Waaaghships R Invinciber!!!"

Then getting their asses completely kicked in, because guess what? they aren't.

"Look before you jump in" just isn't something anyone not-named-Hanse typically does (though the lack of HPG installations on so many warships and naval units despite the obvious utility may be a contributing factor, that doesn't explain why they always go in at the most obvious point in the solar system map.)

It's going to be very interesting to see your take on the blind-sided slaughter though.

[Liam's Ghost]

-Somewhere near Thorin, early March-

 It had all come together, Victor mused as he considered the stack of reports held to his desk with magnetic paperweights and the starmap fastened to the wall of his cabin.

 Nearly four full armies of the Comguard were at their jump-off points, with almost the entire fleet of combat capable WarShips on hand to provide escort. The ships Hohiro had offered had reported ready. Edwin Amis and the 19th Striker Regiment had left Dieron and met up with their escort. Colonel Jaffray of the Northwind Hussars and Colonel Campbell of the Royal Black Watch were champing at the bit. Colonel Barclay of Wolf's Dragoons' Delta Regiment refused to provide any information at all on their status over the HPG network, though Andrew Redburn had sent very vague assurances that the Dragoons and the First Royal Battlemech Regiment were on schedule. Phelan's Wolves had reported they were just waiting for the appointed hour.

 They'd brought a massive force, including the largest fleet of WarShips assembled for a single operation since the end of the First Succession War. An overwhelming, even awe inspiring force that Victor could have only dreamed of mustering during the Civil War. And yet, every time Victor looked at the reports and the map, he couldn't escape this sense of dread.

 Victor was Precentor Martial and commander of the Comguards. In theory. In practice his every decision was being watched and could be overridden by First Precentor Gavin Dow and the First Circuit, and it seemed that he'd burned up all his good will with them deposing his sister. When he'd balked at producing a plan for an immediate counter attack against the Blakists after the attack on Tukayyid, First Precentor Dow had instead handed him one along with orders from the First Circuit to implement it. It wasn't their plan, of course. The bones of it had been written just after the Word of Blake had seized Terra, but it had been immediately shelved to deal with the greater threat of the Jade Falcons at Coventry, then set aside again in favor of supporting the Star League against the Smoke Jaguars and in the Great Refusal, and then finally forgotten about as the Word of Blake seemed intent on playing nice and gaining Star League membership.

 To account for the ten year gap between when the plan was written and when it was to be executed, First Precentor Dow had simply allocated more troops, fully a third of the Comguard's fighting strength and every WarShip at their disposal, save for the yardships and a single frigate held back to defend the First Circuit itself on Orestes. Gaps in intelligence? The obvious discrepancies in the strength of the Word of Blake Militia? Solve it with speed, surprise, and overwhelming force. No time wasted properly assessing what we might actually be facing. Whatever forces the Word of Blake had somehow secretly raised, they had already spread themselves thin fighting three Successor States simultaneously. They had to be vulnerable. Simply throw more troops into the breach.

 Victor sighed. Maybe Dow was right. Four WarShips currently known to be at Luthien. A total of six observed at Tharkad, three of them confirmed destroyed. One destroyed and two more active over New Avalon. At least two destroyed over Outreach. Reports of other Blakist ships and troops active all across the Inner Sphere. They had to be stretched thin, right? Maybe one massive strike might actually cut the head off the serpent.

 The problem was, they didn't know for certain. What they were seeing was only what the Word of Blake was willing to reveal. And Victor had learned a long time ago not to trust what his enemy was willing to show him.

 First Precentor Dow, of course, had fought Victor on every change he recommended, especially anything that might further delay the assault or "tip their hand". And Victor had lost more of those fights than he'd won. But he had won one battle, and gotten Dow's permission to bring outside units into the fight. What was left of the SLDF, the Dragoons, the Northwind Highlanders, Clan Wolf in Exile, even the Combine all still had forces available and a strong desire to hit back. Dow had fought him on this too, of course. He didn't want to "waste time" waiting for them to arrive, didn't want Comstar to share control of the battle, and he sure as hell didn't want half a dozen different outsiders critiquing his battle plan, even if it was coming from some of the finest and most experienced military minds in the Inner Sphere. Wining that fight, and keeping their allies on side, had taken some rapid fire diplomacy, along with one massive concession, which Victor could only hope he'd turned into an opportunity.

 But it had all come together. And for all his dread and uncertainty, all Victor had to do was look at the clock on the cabin wall to know that putting it off wasn't an option.

 Case White was already underway.

[Sir Chaos]

That sounds like a stronger force than the canonical Case White.

[Daryk]

It'll certainly increase the carnage if nothing else...

[Cannonshop]

Bloood....Blood in the,
Spaace-Lane!!
so much Bloooood!!
Blood in the,
Spaaace-Lane!!

Got Set-up everyone gets to be,
Just another Ca-Tas-Tro-pheee!!

Blood, Blood on the,
Spaaace Lane!!!


Alright, let us get the popcorn ready for the complete, one-sided massacre caused by strategic incompetence laced with command string compromise!

[Daryk]

With the extra forces, there may be some of that on the WoB side too... ;)

[Cannonshop]

With the extra forces, there may be some of that on the WoB side too... ;)

In the canon, what godhammered both Case White and the Dragoons effort, was bad strategic decisions mixed with espionage compromise-that is, the WoB knew not only THAT they were coming, but when and where.

Larger groups make it HARDER to keep movement a secret, not easier, and as the post said, Dow rejected most of Victor's common-sense suggestions.

It's going to be a ****** massacre, only this time with a bigger body count, for what would appear to be the same reasons, only bigger.

[Daryk]

Liam did say at least one group was maintaining pretty tight OPSEC... we'll see if they're able to be an ace in the hole or not... ;)

[Cannonshop]

Liam did say at least one group was maintaining pretty tight OPSEC... we'll see if they're able to be an ace in the hole or not... ;)

I think there's going to be plenty of ace-holes after a bit. Some lessons have to be learned the hard way first though.

[Daryk]

Until they remove Dow, the Comstar types are going to be operating at a deficit.

[Cannonshop]

Until they remove Dow, the Comstar types are going to be operating at a deficit.

The Comstar types and everyone who relies on them for services are going to be running a deficit.  wait, even that's not right...

They need to remove Comstar, then they can maybe stop working at a deficit.  The basic problem here, is that Comstar and Word of Blake are MAYBE at odds...kind of...but comstar is penetrated to their eyeballs and were (in the canon) thoroughly so.

Anything you tell Comstar, the Word of Blake is going to know.  Your best OpSec is to freeze out Comstar, which means losing Comstar assets, which is ALSO a dangerous compromise, since they have the bank and even if you don't tell them what you're doing, the ROM operative and their non-op-covers can find out by looking at the transaction records, or at your non-military traffic that still routes through the interstellar phone company.

and then, there's the physical assets the Com Guard hasn't lost to open compromise that you don't know they don't have covert compromise in place on.

Case WHITE is going to have to be a bloodbath or nobody's going to figure it out.

[Cannonshop]

I mean, Victor should have been suspicious when a Civilian (Dow) is overriding the Precentor Martial {whose whole job is to run military operations) on a military operation that many times in that many ways.

The Equivalent would be Roosevelt overriding Eisenhower on an operational level right down to the assignment of specific units, during Overlord-that kind of interference is not merely counterproductive, it's outright dangerous even under the most ideal conditions.

When Roosevelt DID override his generals, it was "DO this operation, not that one", he didn't interfere in HOW the operations were done.

[lowrolling]

This going to be a 95% disaster

[Liam's Ghost]

-Northwind-

 Every available radio channel was howling with the unholy wail of Scottish warpipes as the fleet was finishing its final approach to the planet. They'd come out at the LaGrange point between Northwind and its larger moon Dublin. A tricky, risky plot for most, but Cho-Sho Sakurajima had felt no fear authorizing it with the aid of the Jumpships in their care. After all, who would know a star system better than its own?

 Comstar's condition for allowing outsiders to join their offensive was a simple one. Terra belonged to Comstar and Comstar would be the one to take it back. No foreign troops or WarShips would be allowed to join the final assault on the planet. Instead, if they wanted to help, they would have to settle for targeting other worlds around Terra to soften up or draw out Blakist forces in preparation for that final assault.

 Cho-Sho Sakurajima couldn't help but question the wisdom or motives behind First Precentor Dow's reasoning, but he knew the troops in his care were more than happy to oblige. Behind the Siriwan and her small dropship screen came a fleet of transports bearing the colors of the Royal Black Watch Regiment and the Northwind Hussars. The Royal Black Watch, though SLDF troops, had first come back from the dead on Northwind, even if they actually drew most of their personnel from all over the inner sphere, and the Hussars were the only regiment of the Northwind Highlanders that hadn't been cut off and trapped on Northwind by the Blakist blockade. For them, liberating the planet was deeply personal. For Sakurajima, and he assumed Precentor Martial Davion, the goal was much more practical, namely bringing the rest of the Highlanders into the fight.

 Either way, Sakurajima knew that very few of the people under his command and protection were weeping over being left out of Comstar's grand showdown. 

 On the projection before him the enemy was rising from planetary orbit to meet them, a single squadron of dropships. Two Leopard carriers, two Achilles, and two Avengers. Almost a pathetic force compared to the WarShip they'd been told to expect.

 Was it a trap? Were the Blakists using the planet or the other moon to conceal their main force? Or... did Sakurajima dare to hope that Gavin Dow's assessment was right? Maybe the Blakists really were just spread that thin.

 That hope seemed like a dangerous feeling to harbor. "Helm, stand by to maneuver to unmask point defenses," Sakurajima ordered. The small squadron of Blakist vessels was already deploying their complements of fighters, and while Sakurajima had yet to face the Blakists directly, but he had been wise enough learn from those who had. It was why the ships in his care were in such a tight formation, all within nine kilometers of the Siriwan, where her admittedly limited point defense systems could provide them some protection. "Flight deck, you are cleared to launch. Assault squadron, engage at will."

 On the projection, the three Nekohono'os flanking his cruiser swung end over end to bring their bows in line with the oncoming Blakists, still several thousand kilometers away, and let loose with their first volleys of anti-ship missiles. Nine massive Kraken missiles leapt from their launchers to streak towards their distant targets, the gunners aboard the assault ships feeding course corrections to the tele-operated weapons mid flight to keep them on target.

 Among the rest of the fleet, the first fighters took off not just from the Siriwan, but her assault ships and a number of the transports as well. In raw numbers, they could call upon more than three times the number of fighters than the Blakists were sending towards them. Ideally, they should be able to simply swamp the enemy's fighters and easily destroy them before they could pose a threat. However, even one or two enemies leaking through might cause disaster.

 The Blakist dropships abruptly broke their formation in a flurry of evasive maneuvering as the missiles reached them. One of the lead ships, an Achilles, wasn't quite quick enough, as three of the massive Krakens slammed into it, sending it spinning out of control. The rest of the ships passed through the attack unscathed however, the missiles targeting either shot down by defensive fire or exhausting the last of their propellant in vain.

 As the Nekos rippled off another volley of missiles, each side's fighters met in a hail of slugs, missiles, and energy beams, the Blakist's immediately getting the worst of it even as their assault ships began adding their own fire to the battle. They were just too badly outnumbered, and though they seemed determined to fight to the very last man, making no attempt to break from the furball either to flee, or even to make a run at the Siriwan or the transports, the outcome seemed inevitable... even strangely so.

 By the time the Siriwan had closed enough to bring her own guns to bear, the last of the Blakist fighters had already been eliminated, and most of the enemy dropships had died with them, either to their fighters or to the capital missiles fired into the fight by the assault squadron. Only a single Avenger had survived long enough to attempt a final, suicidal run in the direction of the Siriwan.

 Less than a minute later, it was nothing more than an expanding cloud of debris. But even after that debris field had passed them harmlessly by and Sakurajima found himself and his fleet in clear, uncontested space with their goal only a few tens of thousands of kilometers ahead of them, he couldn't shake his unease.

 "Assault squadron," he ordered. "Break and disperse for distant overwatch. I want eyes on the entire planet, and clear sight on anything that attempts a run at us from behind Glasgow." This shouldn't be it. This couldn't be it. The enemy that had so brutally attacked Luthien and Dieron and so many other worlds wouldn't make it this easy...

 "Transport fleet," he said, turning his attention to the charges the Dragon's Heir had ordered him to protect, "We will hold position until we have confidently determined that local space is clear." Where were they? What was he missing?

 The answer would come only a few minutes later as some of the Siriwan's sensors, as well as those of many of the transports in the fleet, were aimed at the planet itself. Scanning for signs of Blakist ships and fighters waiting on the ground, prepping for some sort of ambush.

 What they found instead were craters, ruins, and devastation. The Blakists weren't lying in wait. There was no ambush, no plan to contest the liberation of Northwind.

 Because the Word of Blake had already burned it to the ground.

[worktroll]

Great chapter, Liam!

[eriktheviking]

It always seemed 'off' in canon when one side targets civilian populations with WMD retaliation did not occur.

It may not be 'nice' and heroic in the spirit of the good guys, it does seem more realistic.

[Daryk]

Ouch... liberating a smoking crater is disheartening, but needs to be reported ASAP.  I'm sure plenty of Highlanders are holding out in the hills, but the "spread thin" idea needs to be exploded for the higher ups.

[lowrolling]

There crimes keep compounding upon themselves. Are they out to reduce the Inner Sphere to just 25 habitable planets?

[Lupuseverto]

As much as we ever found out the wobbies grand plan, one of the possibilities was basically nuke the inner sphere back to the stone age and then rebuild from Terra. Assuming you don't ascribe to the "the RotS was the words plan b" theory.

[Cannonshop]

As much as we ever found out the wobbies grand plan, one of the possibilities was basically nuke the inner sphere back to the stone age and then rebuild from Terra. Assuming you don't ascribe to the "the RotS was the words plan b" theory.

There's a LOT to recommend that theory though.  Typically, against an entrenched enemy in a defensive position, you need either a massive technical advantage (the Ottoman Turks used massive cannons to break Constantinople, for example) or you need upwards of 3 to 1 in terms of combat power if you're at or near tech parity.

Operation:Scour used numbers in the inverse, it should've been a one-sided slaughter at every major battle site-in favor of the WoB.

the only times you get consecutive victory under those conditions, is when you have the other side compromised to their eyeballs from the inside, such as when the enemy army is in revolt and fighting each other instead of manning their stations (as happened on the Eastern front in places during WW1 when the Russian Revolution kicked off.)

Stone's victories were costly-but they were also stunningly improbable.  the theory "it was an inside job' is very much because they were so improbable.  and so improbable so frequently.  Once or twice someone would be lucky (prepared when the opportunity presents itself) but it breaks probability when it's successively and the same guy. 

the second reason people often cite, is the following: The WoB Protectorate, Republic of the Sphere, and Terran Hegemony had roughly the same borders, two of them were positioned as 'first among "equals"' internationally and economically, the logic behind the Republic treaty made exactly zero sense on multiple levels, especially considering the previous 300 years, (which suggests some of that Pheremone Juju or other forms of subtle brainwashing were likely involved), the Houses, having experienced what happens when a Monopoly on a key infrastructure flexes its muscle, Gave that monopoly back to a Comstar filled with Stone-Pardoned Blakists, rather than taking over that critical infrastructure the way anyone else who'd been repeatedly burned by the guys who just started a war with all mankind would have.

I mean, Holy Shroud was KNOWN, so was Operation: Scorpion, and everyone had endured "Interdictions" in the past to the point Old Hans Davion cooked up a workaround.

somehow nobody but Liao made the connection of "Monopoly ****** is possible (and has happened multiple times in the past) means Monopoly ****** will happen (If you don't take steps to prevent the monopoly)".

Too many 'tells' were dropped that were either catastrophically bad writing by people who don't know human nature (I rather think that best selling fiction writers like Loren Coleman, Michael Stackpole, and so on aren't completely ignorant of human nature myself), or were 'tells' that the WoB (or at least, their Master) got everything they wanted by "Losing" the war (tactical loss, strategic triumph).  The process getting there would by necessity require inflicting enough damage that this rebranded terran hegemony would be in charge-which means lots of using "Apocalypse WOW" techniques and methods to cripple everyone else's recovery and make the loss look good.

[Daryk]

In that light, it looks more like plan A... ;)

[Cannonshop]

In that light, it looks more like plan A... ;)

It's deceptive, remember that the Jihad had to be pieced together AFTER the release of MWDA told everyone what the ending was.  One artifact of that, was having to 'square' outcomes to match the various pilot and unit cards and fluff on the klikky tech models, while presenting a situation that COULD end up with a new state right in the middle of the most contested part of the Inner sphere for the last 3 centuries.

IOW it 'looks' like Plan "A" because the writers had to chainfall outcomes into place and explain them.  It's less horrible than it might have (should have) been, because they needed room for expansion, and because ten books of "Litany of Horrors" only really works for Warhammer 40K.   The good guys have to actually win (See: predetermined outcome).

This is also why in HoTW, Stone's 'plan' was a retread of The Master's plan, and Amaris's plan for defending the Sol system,but with fewer resources (and why Alaric's plan to take it, which was a retread of Kerensky and Stone himself, worked at all).  The outcome was predetermined, the fiction had to be bent to fit the outcome, what results when logiced out without leaning on out-of-setting knowledge (like when things were published ahead of other things) is that it looks like this was the Master's Plan all along, and Stone was a puppet...because that fits what's presented in-universe....and as readers, we WANT our fiction to be written WELL by people who aren't just phoning it in after talking to the marketing staff.

Thus, since heroic deeds are scaled to the opposition they face, The Master needs to be a malevolent, but brilliant, bastard, rahter than a pathetic figure throwing  a temper-tantrum.

[Lupuseverto]

Yeah with shades of "if they won't unify  under us then they can unify against  us". Plan b for boogeyman if you will.

[Sir Chaos]

So they´ll unite, possibly, temporarily, under values diametrically opposed to those of the Blessed Order, making sure said Blessed Order and all it stands for is wiped off the face of the universe forever, before they will inevitably collapse again, because that is the nature of society without the leadership of the Blessed Order, picking up again right where they stopped when the Succession Wars ended.

Yeah... that totally makes so much sense...