You are Sela's military advisor. What do you tell her about the invasion plan?

[DGCatAniSiri]

Depends - it's a bold plan to try and take Vulcan, to be sure, and perhaps more audacious than it is viable... But part of the Romulan psyche also is arrogance, that they believe in their own superiority. They are the martial cousins to the Vulcans' pacifism, which would provide the potential for the idea that the Vulcans would be overrun because they don't have the same dedication to military might that the Romulans do. Of course this underestimates the Vulcans' own abilities and strength, but part of that is because the Vulcans do not flaunt that aspect of themselves.

Likewise, we know that at least one warbird was traveling with them, cloaked. There could easily have been more, using the civilian ships crossing the Neutral Zone as cover, and they would have been able to hold the Vulcan cities hostage with threat of bombardment while the agents on the ground tampered with communications, able to send an "all is well" signal to the Federation until they were too entrenched.

And the plan also revealed the dissidents among them - had Spock not had Data with him, an advantage that, when Sela set her plan in motion, she couldn't have accounted for, getting the leader of the movement, the Federation spy in their midst, would have still been quite the feather in her cap, even had she not taken Vulcan.

Basically, I think the plan had at least a chance for some level of success prior to the unforeseen involvement of Picard and Data specifically. While I would believe the Romulan military to be uncompromising on the subject of her failure in this, I also think that there was a point where the potential rewards outweighed the obvious risks, and it was only because Federation spies spotted Spock on Romulus before they made their move and Starfleet sent in Picard (who brought Data with him) that it became doomed to failure.

 

[fireproof78]

2000 romulans would have trouble invading a modern earth country, let alone a planet with equal tech.

In conventional batter, probably.

If I were Sela the goal would be to seize key strategic assets by blending in.

Disconsidering the JJ movies (easy to do), that's also the last we heard from Spock.

I like to think Sela kept her power and eventually had him killed. She has his skull preserved on a stand in her trophy room like Fascist Picard

Wow. That's dark for one of the franchise's most famous characters.

 

[A Chimpanzee & 2 Trainees]

I'm trying to picture what that momologue as her advisor would look like. Forgive me for being a terrible writer, but here's what I've got

Commander, you know my service, and my loyalty to the empire, the Praetor, and to you, but I would be of no use to you if I did not tell you now that this plan will fail.

You may be able to confuse them. You may be able to briefly take Vulcan, but we cannot hold it long. Vulcan is a Federation world, and the Federation will not simply give up on the failure of one counter-attack. Take only Vulcan and you guarantee our eventual ruin. They will have a single focus for all their energies in a counter offensive unless we take more.

We need not conquer the Federation, but we must defeat them. They are defeated when thet believe that the cost of retaking Vulcan is too high not to accept its loss. We must take the entire sector, at a minimum, and fight them with such ferocity for every world they retake, that they FEAR to assault our stronghold on Vulcan once they reach it.

I realize this is a truly massive commitment of men and material. We still have some nominal support among Duras and their allies. Perhaps the Breen could be of use. We will need support to accomplish such a bold plan..

We need a fleet of ships, crossing the Federation border under cloak, ready to strike key starships and installations in a coordinated, simultaneous assault to cripple and delay their ability to respond. To that end we must disrupt their monitoring networks. All this must be in place before the first soldier sets foot on Vulcan.

I will do whatever you ask for the glory of the empire, but please... reconsider this. The cost of failure is too high.

 

[Takeru]

I wouldn't give her advice, I'd just quit because sending 2000 soldiers to conquer a planet is so absurdly dumb that if she came up with that plan that in itself is proof that she is insane and would not listen to me even if I explained in excruciating detail why it won't work. So I'd just let her go and fail spectacularly.

 

[Qonundrum]

Disconsidering the JJ movies (easy to do), that's also the last we heard from Spock.

I like to think Sela kept her power and eventually had him killed. She has his skull preserved on a stand in her trophy room like Fascist Picard

In a parallel dimension, or even a shocking moment in Trek's originally-defined one... considering how Kirk was killed off, among others, Spock's would have a lot more genuine dramatic weight.

 

[Qonundrum]

I wouldn't give her advice, I'd just quit because sending 2000 soldiers to conquer a planet is so absurdly dumb that if she came up with that plan that in itself is proof that she is insane and would not listen to me even if I explained in excruciating detail why it won't work. So I'd just let her go and fail spectacularly.

It's those details in her plan's reveal, combined with stuff readily glossed over in part one, that really make the story more disappointing than it should have been.

 

[PoorSailorsAirline]

"Commander Sela, watch out! You're about to be used as a thinly veiled cross-dimensional plot device to bring back Denise Crosby. It isn't going to go well for you...twice! So until you see Lursa and B'Etor warp past on the run in an old jalopy Bird-of-Prey, and an odd speech on Neutral Zone TV from Ambassador Spock, you'd best put in as the commander of a Romulan holiday cruise ship and lay low."