Phase Three

Phase Three is the pressure-building stage of James Mowry’s campaign, designed to keep the enemy busy guarding its rear while its forces remain committed elsewhere. Its central method is strategic bombing, by Mowry himself and by anyone he can pay; its importance lies not only in damage, but in making the enemy divide attention and resources before a larger Terran attack.

Position in the Campaign

Mowry has carried out the first phase and part of the second when he assesses the next step. Phase Three is not simply another set of provocations: it is a buildup of pressure intended to leave the enemy so occupied defending its back door that it cannot properly hold the front. The metaphor makes the strategic purpose plain. Each threat to the rear is meant to burden the whole defensive position.

The phase also belongs to a wider picture of strain. The enemy’s fleets are being dispersed, while substantial troop movements carry forces from its overcrowded home system to the outer planets. These movements suggest an empire already having to spread its strength across multiple demands. Mowry’s pressure is meant to intensify that difficulty rather than confront the enemy only at the front.

Bombing and Available Means

Strategic bombing is the defining action of Phase Three. Mowry intends to undertake some attacks himself and to pay others to carry out the rest. He has material for his own operations and money to recruit additional participants, giving the plan both a personal and a delegated reach. The distinction matters: the campaign need not depend on Mowry alone to create simultaneous or continuing pressure.

At this point, the evidence establishes his readiness and intended method, not a completed bombing campaign. Mowry has material prepared for his own part and funds for the paid actions, but the phase remains conditional on authorization. Phase Three is therefore presented as a prepared capacity whose timing is itself controlled, rather than as an offensive already under way.

Jaimec and the Enemy’s Constraints

Jaimec is a particular pressure point because the enemy cannot safely withdraw strength from the planet, however urgently it may be needed elsewhere. Its position may become still more demanding: the enemy may have to reinforce Jaimec at the expense of Diracta. Mowry’s strategy thus exploits an unequal choice. A force held in place on Jaimec is unavailable elsewhere, while a reinforcement sent there deepens the cost to another front.

This constraint gives the campaign’s rearward pressure a practical military consequence. The objective is not merely to frighten or damage the enemy, but to make its existing commitments harder to manage. The dispersed fleets and movements of troops from the home system form the broader strategic setting; Jaimec’s inability to release forces shows how that general strain can become a specific restriction on command.

Authorization and Timing

Mowry is not supposed to begin Phase Three’s offensive actions until ordered. Such action usually comes before a full-scale attack by Terran space-forces, so proceeding early would break the intended sequence between covert pressure and open military assault. The delay is not a lack of preparation: Mowry has the necessary material and money, but must hold the operation in reserve.

In the meantime, he can continue to keep Dirac Angestun Gesept in the public eye by arranging further executions and remaining a persistent nuisance. Mowry decides not to signal his associates yet and to prolong this activity. The contrast between a restrained bombing plan and visible political agitation defines the phase’s immediate tension: the next escalation is ready in outline, but Mowry continues to act below its threshold while awaiting the order.

Wider Conditions of Pressure

The campaign’s coercive logic depends on vulnerabilities beyond the bombing plan itself. The local war effort relies critically on the uninterrupted movement of ships along roughly twenty established sea routes, none carrying vessels larger than fifteen thousand tons. Delaying those journeys, disrupting schedules, or bottling ships up would therefore threaten an important part of the war effort. These details establish how much strategic pressure could be exerted against movement and supply, although they do not by themselves show that Mowry has already carried out such an attack in Phase Three.

A related maritime deception requires both a prepared stage and a spotlight. At the outbreak of war, the enemy was allowed to obtain top-secret plans, creating the conditions for that device to work. This wider pattern of exploiting what the enemy sees and how it responds complements Phase Three’s emphasis on forcing defensive attention: pressure can arise from real attacks, from threats to essential movement, and from an opponent’s uncertainty about what has been set in motion.