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Background info

In the galaxy that I'm working in, 20 other nations exist. Around 15 of them possess thousands of planets and billions, sometimes trillions of people (they spread throughout universal duplicates of the galaxy. I have been doing this in a form; I have colonized the one planet that I possess throughout the multiverse).

My position in the galaxy

I'm self proclaimed as the most safe planet in the solar system. I surround my planet with things capable of protecting it from traditional space warfare tools. (Star-wars death star style lasers and other things of that nature.) The history of my planet is a complicated one, in which at one point it was the most technologically advanced nation ever. A catastrophe set the planet to ruins and leaves few relics behind. Currently in terms of what I have wide access to now I am around the third most technologically advanced nation. The other two in the top three have the ability to completely mess up my planet. Anyone who is lower than me on the "scale" has to take more complicated means to cause me damage. (Throwing planets or slowing mine down.)

My issue

In order to stay the safest nation I need to not get attacked by the top 2 or the lower few. But I do want to give military aid to people in need which might result in unwanted attention and attacks. (I'm interacting with real people. It's still applicable to world-building I swear.) Were I to get attacked though I would no longer remain the safest planet, even if I have the capability to protect people the best, because I would be getting attacked more frequently.

So how can I keep my planet extremely safe and participate in warfare/aid?

~general technology level of the galaxy is around the level of Star-Wars. I have the ability to stop any teleportations into or out of my planet/any "energy" attacks in the pop-culture sense. Some forms of "energy attacks" and teleportation can make through my "forcefield" (not really a forcefield I'm just hand-waving it) but the things that can make it through are accessible by a small few and can't translocate more than a few tons.~

By safe I mean malicious military actions from the outside shouldn't happen/reach the surface where the majority of my population lies. (Also not physically harmed by attacks.)

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  • $\begingroup$ If someone could recommend some better tags that would be appreciated :D I had no clue what to mark my question as. $\endgroup$ Mar 1, 2019 at 22:46
  • $\begingroup$ @user535733 thanks for helping :D I fixed it. (I think) $\endgroup$ Mar 1, 2019 at 23:55
  • $\begingroup$ "Malicious actions" is a bit vague. Many simple crimes are malicious. So interplanetary organized crime (like money laundering) might count...even though you clearly seem to not intend that. What about foreign-sponsored actions on your planet like building and supporting local terroists? What about foreign-sponsored influence campaigns to encourage sedition? Or letters of marque to encourage piracy? Or are you only trying to deter (and counting) uniformed military action? $\endgroup$
    – user535733
    Mar 2, 2019 at 0:01
  • $\begingroup$ Does this planet exist within a nation of many planets or is it just a single planet? $\endgroup$
    – MB123
    Mar 2, 2019 at 0:48
  • $\begingroup$ @MB123 It's a single planet. I thought I made that clear. $\endgroup$ Mar 2, 2019 at 0:56

4 Answers 4

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Don't just look at military power. Focus on economic power.

Aim to become the sole supplier of some very useful commodity everyone needs. Either something only you can provide, or something you can provide much cheaper than anyone else, driving everyone else off the market. Sell to everyone for a fair price and make their economies dependent on you.

If someone threatens you, remind the rest of the galaxy that if you get invaded, the supply will dry up. If they don't want their economies to tank, they should better guarantee your independence and send a few of their fleets to defend you.

If you want to help someone in their war against someone else, also do so economically. Sell cheaper to the side you want to win while you embargo the side you want to lose.

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The easiest way to be safe is to have nothing that anyone with the power to take it from you wants.

To that end, this solar system is unusual in that it at one time had a number of planets in non-planar orbits. Back in the day, from a distance, it sort of resembled an atom, with all the different planets having its own plane of orbit. But that was then, and this is now. And sadly, as it is now, all of the non-habitable planets in this solar system have broken up; they're now asteroid fields. Asteroid fields which are known to be actively mined by automated mining systems that don't always recognize the difference between an asteroid and an unknown foreign space craft. Getting in without the teleportation you can block is therefore tricky.

Your civilization has long since mined virtually all of the usable resources of its single inhabited world. Its mining efforts are now in the various asteroid belts. And in case you're curious, it's not coincidence that the other worlds and moons have been converted into bodies with much smaller gravity wells, to optimize the efficiency of those operations. It's also not coincidence that a couple of those asteroid belts appear to be of significantly different compositions from the others, almost as if some other civilizations lobbed planets at yours, and your nation managed to deflect them and break them into bits.

Note that all of these mining operations have not resulted in your planet having a mass of highly refined readily accessible materials, apart from its battle and mining fleets (which are difficult to tell apart. There are some rumors around that there is actually no difference, that your battle ships can disassemble enemy ships to salvage their material resources at least as efficiently as your mining ships can mine asteroids. You, of course, know this to be false. Those two fleets use totally different logos. Also, your mining fleets would be hard pressed to disintegrate a planet into an asteroid field.) The reason for this discrepancy is that your nation exports a lot of goods. Goods which include war ships whose weapon systems are carefully chosen to pose no threat to you, but plenty of threat to less technological sides, and whose defenses are easily overcome by your ships.

Additionally, the overall environment on your homeworld is, from the perspective of most other races, toxic sludge. Building up to an advanced civilization such as yours has its costs, and you've paid yours. There are parts of your planet that are habitable, but in general, one needs to teleport into them. I seem to recall you indicated that you have a local lockdown on that technology, yes? Your world also has some rather nice space stations.

You are a strict importer of food and a net exporter of most other things, especially anything which can be derived from the toxic sludge your planet is best known for. The official report on your planet's overall health is that nothing grows there, so all of your food needs to be imported from off-world. In reality, very little will grow on the surface of your planet, but in the vast labyrinth of tunnels and underground cities wherein the vast majority of your population lives, hydroponic farming is a booming business, providing most of the food your civilization uses to thrive. But this population center and everyone and everything in it are your nation's best kept secrets.

As you are very concerned about attacks from outside threats to your food supply, your nation has a strict neutrality. You do not initiate attacks outside your solar system. You do not trade significant arms or battle-quality medical supplies with any faction you publicly know to be engaged in a war.

(To speak plainly, while you are very interested in giving aid to other nations who you feel support your interests in their wars, you take pains to not understand that they are at war, ever. If some side forces you to be aware that there is a war going on, you cease all obvious aid to the side you support in the war, while supporting them in any very discrete manner that you can clearly get away with. For example, by supplying them with civilian goods that are surprisingly useful in military situations. Like, maybe, automated mining ships - but not your automated mining ships. And probably through other nations that also support your interests, rather than directly. Also, whenever you do go to war yourself, you use ships that are at least made to look like those of other nations. Mostly ships that you took as trade ins on space ships you sold, with everyone understanding you were just going to melt them down for their raw materials, so battle damage didn't matter and stuff.)

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Balance of powers.

You are afraid only of the top two. If they are on roughly equal footing and potential threats, they are afraid of each other too. Each one is your ally against the other, and because of that there will be peace.

If either Green or Blue captures you and your resources, that will shift the balance of power. Therefore Blue is your ally against Green and Green your ally against Blue. If either one attacks you or even threatens you, the other will come to your aid and then it will be 2 against one. Your existence as a nation as you are is crucial to the Cold War detente between the top two powers. Both are eager to preserve the detente - neither one wants a wasteful and destructive war.

As regards lesser threats, both of the big 2 powers are enthusiastic to help you there too. Each of them is eager for you to regard it favorably because if there is a big war, the side you throw in with will be the winning side. And neither of these big powers is as fastidious as you are as regards the prospect of perfect safety. They both have big militaries because of their mutual arms race and each is willing to flex some muscle and get a little messy on your behalf - this flexing is also a good excuse to show off capabilities to the other side without actually coming to blows with the other side. That leaves you free to scheme and aid behind the scenes as you see fit.

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The easiest way to make your planet the safest in the galaxy is to conquer the entire galaxy. Thus there will be no more wars in the galaxy and every planet will be safe from attacks made with advanced warships that only governments can afford to build.

Of course many other things can kill individual people or sometimes entire planets full of of people. So naturally a main function of your new galactic empire will be to make life safer for individuals and for groups of people. The new galactic government will make life safer and safer on every world, and a little bit more so on you original planet thus making your original planet the safest planet in the galaxy.

Of course if your original planet isn't already the capital of the mightiest space empire in your galaxy conquering the other powers in your galaxy will be very difficult. It is hard to conquer a realm that is ten times, or a hundred times, or a thousand times, etc. as powerful as your realm.

Therefore your realm will have to conquer and/or colonize and settle many other planets secretly, without anyone noticing it, thus eventually forming a secret hidden empire that is more powerful than all the others realms in the galaxy combined. Then it can conquer the rest of the galaxy and become a public empire.

Therefore, your goal should be to conquer and/or settle astronomical bodies and/or artificial space habitats that nobody else in the galaxy knows about or is likely to discover, thus building up a secret empire to eventually conquer the entire galaxy and thus ending the horror of independent realms whose function is to kill their citizens and the citizens of other realms in wars.

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