Garth 2 wrote:There's one slight problem with this:
They are all "prisoners of war", in the custody of the SEM and you don't usually start putting defectors directly back into your own or allied militaries (after all they don't it once who's to say they wouldn't do it again).
Also; they wouldn't be emigrating. They would have to ask for alyssum, then request full citizenship.
(This after all the process that Yu and Caslet went through)
Good point, Garth.
IMHO, rather than taking them into service or granting asylum (and remember, folks, there are only 2-3M treecats in total; they can't be everywhere in numbers), I think the best might be to
parole them and return them--not to the SLN--but to their
home planets.
Those in the Protectorate systems, especially those in rebellion against the OFS and FF can lend a hand and those returned to Core worlds will demonstrate that (1) the Manties/GA are not the evil bastiches being protrayed by the Mandarins and (2) serve as a basis for making contact and doing negoitations.
After all, Prichard brought back the Grendelsbane prisoners and turned them over to Manticore with no strings attached, IIRC.
We shall see.