Your nation is small, but prosperous. You have unlimited wealth in the form of asteroids that can be mined for resources. You have unlimited power in the form of fusion that can utilise Helium-3 in a clean manner. Unfortunately for you, you're a breakaway republic from an oppressive colonial power.
Your nation succeeded in a coup and took over the colonial power. You are struggling for independence, but there is every chance that struggle will be short lived.
- The colonialists are mobilising to retake the rebel planet, but you have no idea what forces they will bring. The nearest enemy naval base is a month away. A task force requires at least that long to deploy to your system.
- You have an extensive ship yard in orbit of your planet, but it was geared for civilian construction. You have no plans for building any true warships, but the shipyard itself can be used to build such vessels - you must simply have the ship architecture in place to plan and build one.
To build a dedicated warship would take months, however. But you can retrofit civilian ships with weapons to act as 'q-ships'. This process would take a week for one large transport vessel. - Your population numbers in the high millions - IE, under a billion peoples - but there are only several dozen 'mega-cities' I guess you could say, on one continent. In other words, the population is clustered in a small area. There is self-sufficient farms and so on, but nothing stockpiled to last a long siege. To fill up the silos requires outside trade.
- Jump emergence zones can allow an invasion fleet to enter orbit quickly, but they can emerge anywhere close to the planet. It is not a case of B5's jump gate giving an effective chokepoint.
Your capital cities are guarded by a anti-missile defence 'shield' that acts like the current NMD system in the works. Only, y'know, actually works and isn't a complete and total budgetary White Elephant. You have a militia that has trained for months, but not to the level of hardened soldiers. On the other hand, they have something worth fighting for. Marines will have the best kit and tanks. Do you allocate resources to build your own models, or do you do something else? There are no bomb shelters, or at least very few bomb shelters for your civilian population. Utilities are relatively unprotected. - The four nearest systems to you are also colonies to this empire, and are sympathetic. But they do not hold any ships; rather, they can provide other kinds of support. The colonial empire is to Spinward (IE in the direction of galactic spin). To Trailing (IE, opposite to spinward) there is another rival empire who can assist your fledgling revolution, but terms must be negotiated with them. One of the provisions is you must essentially surrender sovereignty to them in order to receive their help, so you would effectively fight for independence only to put yourself under the heel of another. But they are offering highly generous support. To Coreward lie an alien hegemony that has so far shown a disinterest to human affairs. However, they might be willing to assist if the right overtures were made. To Rimward lies uncharted space.
- You can hit the black market and see if you can't buy some weapons from arms merchants. You can have munitions within a fortnight to last a year's worth of fighting, but it might be too expensive. Also, what ethical ramifications do you consider? Would you buy chemical/biological weapons in the case of a ground invasion? What about civilian casualties? Do you buy expensive PGMs (precision guided munitions), or relatively cheaper area-effect weapons designed to be indiscriminate?
- Mercenary ships can be hired for this conflict. They will arrive in plenty of time to spare, as you are out in the frontier and this is where they thrive. On the other hand, they might turn on you if they receive a counter-offer. This is highly unprofessional though. It depends on who you approach and with how much. Bear in mind the treasury of your fledgling state is not bottomless. Also bear in mind that mercenaries that are treated honourably might increase your reputation. On the other hand, you could seize their ships and execute their crews and plant your flag on it instead. You would have a tough time convincing others that you're nice, but that's an option you could consider.
- Finally, you can expect a retaliation in at least a month's time, but you must plan for beyond that. Ships can be late, ships can take more time, whatever. What is your plan for not only surviving the counter-revolution, but also the time afterwards, where you have to reinforce all that you've gained?
