Your point about early warning is well taken. I was also looking at the
routes virus could use to get into this sector. To get there virus crosses
Solomani space or via the Hierate. Though one world in Banners I had hit by
an Imperial Scout Service Regal class battlecruiser entering the system.
(Obviously I assumed that the IISS would have odd ships out there on
exploration, diplomatic missions, to counter Solomani missions etc)
Some of the human systems were receiving aid from the Solomani Confederation
in the form of older warships, technology etc. and these were originally
settled from the Solomani regions so I assumed their computer systems would
follow similar architecture. Long term I would have expected the
Confederation to expand into this region though in the end "events"
intervened. The Hierate and offshoot Aslan polities in the sector would
again have similar computer architecture to the Hierates own systems (which
I believe were especially vulnerable - I'm sure I read this somewhere).
At this distance from the release point there is the question of which
strains of virus would have reached the sector. How fast did they evolve,
how long before the earlier suicide types were largely replaced with
something more evolved. Something more for me to think about.
Antony