[MatthTheGeek]

The Gefs probably have cruisers, it wouldn't be surprising for them to have salvaged and retrofitted some decommissioned Fenris/Leviathan, or even assembled a whole Sanctus or another early UEF cruiser class from salvaged spare parts. A faction able to disable a fully armed and retrofitted Hatshepsut-class destroyer might even have the resources to build their own cruiser classes from scratch.

[Rodo]

The GEFs are no more, they where either vanquished or assimilated by the GTVA.
Do you really think all those GEF fighters that you fought where flown by GEF pilots?

[-Sara-]

Is that confirmed?

As for GEF cruisers, I'd more imagine in the fashion of modified transports, a la Millenium Falcon.

[Logistics]

The GEFs are no more, they where either vanquished or assimilated by the GTVA.
Do you really think all those GEF fighters that you fought where flown by GEF pilots?

Yep. The GTVA isn't in control of the system, and the GEF's managed to survive for 50 years against a clearly superior foe. While the UEF isn't known for playing hardball, the reaction of UEF pilots to GEFs suggests that whatever sympathy they had was long since exhausted. I have a suspicion that a future plot point might hinge on the GEF's fractious nature playing more into UEF hands.

[Dragon]

Keep in mind that GEFs are prety much partisans, who are known to cause a lot of trouble for superior armed forces (for example, today in Iraq or Afghanistan).
They hide among civilian population, store their equipment in Kuiper belt asteroids and hidden bases. UEF would have crushed GEFs if they only had a target to strike.
Every GEF Fenris or Leviathan has most likely been downed by the time the war with GTVA begun, same goes for anything big enough to be tracked down and bombed.

[PsychoLandlord]

Yeah, I cant see they Gefs operating anything larger than an armed transport, maybe one or two cruisers. They've lasted this long by being difficult to hit, not by being a large military force.

[-Norbert-]

The GEFs are no more, they where either vanquished or assimilated by the GTVA.
Do you really think all those GEF fighters that you fought where flown by GEF pilots?

As far as I followed the discussions, there was only one group of Gefs present in the WiH1 campaign. And only this one cooperated with the GTVA, while the other Gef clans (for lack of better term) are hitting both UEF and GTVA in their raids.

And I suppose there are also some that just try to stay under the radar, untill the war is resolved, but this last point is just speculation on my part.

[MatthTheGeek]

The GEFs are no more, they where either vanquished or assimilated by the GTVA.
Do you really think all those GEF fighters that you fought where flown by GEF pilots?

You could hardly be wronger. The Gefs have been supplied for 18 months by both the UEF and the Tevs, both trying to use them against the others. Some Gefs cells are working with the Tevs, some are working with the Feds, some are working for neither, either keeping a low profile or striking targets of opportunity on both sides, and some are probably just giving themselves as guns to hire. None of them are directly under the Tev or Fed orders, they're just a wild card they try to influence the best they can. We're talking about a vast, fractioned faction of which a single cell nearly managed to capture a top-of-the-line Hatshepsut by itself.

EDIT : Also, I might add that given the sensible nature of the previously mentioned operation (if what happenned there was to be known, Steele could loose his rank or even be sentenced to death for high treason, conspiracy against Vasudans, for hiding critical intel and organizing a direct assault against critical Allied assets, this could even start a second T-V war if the Zods decided to take it bad), Steele couldn't afford to crew the Scimitars you see in that mission with SOC pilots, and I don't think he even has enough SOC at his disposal on the whole Sol theater for this. We're talking about dozens of fighters here. It's much easier, cheaper and safer to silence a few Gefs than your highly skilled fellow SOC pilots.

Every GEF Fenris or Leviathan has most likely been downed by the time the war with GTVA begun, same goes for anything big enough to be tracked down and bombed.

The Tevs managed to hide a Titan-class carrier for a good half of WiH. This is a much bigger target to hide, especially for people who don't know the battlefield that well. I don't see why would the Gefs have any problem to hide a flotilla of cruisers or larger, since they know the terrain, and most of the UEF sensor infrastructure has been down for a while anyway.

[-Norbert-]

But that was during the war, with - as you said yourself- the UEFs sensor net being only partially functional. Before the GTVA arrived in Sol, it would have been far harder to hide a cruiser, though not entirely impossible I guess.

But if they aquired/build a cruiser during the war, their chances of keeping it under the radar are probably quite good, since the UEF would divert the resources usually in place to detect and take out the Gef, towards the war with the GTVA.

[MatthTheGeek]

If it was that easy to detect a cruiser out of the blue, the Gefs wouldn't be able to hide any of their bases at all. As long as they don't attack with the cruisers, there is nothing for the UEF to track.

[-Norbert-]

Gef bases and colonies are build inside hollowed out asteroids as far as I know. Those are naturally hard to find within an asteroid field, because they don't look out of place. Even the port entrance can be camouflaged by sticking rocks on the outside of the gate.
A starship on the other hand, stands out quite a bit more, unless it stays inside such hidden bases all the time.

[Snail]

Space is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is.

(It can't be that hard to hide a cruiser)

[The E]

A cruiser that isn't doing anything flashy like jumping around a lot is really easy to hide.

[Destiny]

Space is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is.

Some people's perspective is small, sadly. You can stash a Colossus, a bunch of Raynors or even a few million Ursa in one spot in Sol, and they'll never find them if they don't do anything. "Just happened to stumble on them" doesn't occur like a miracle. Maybe god's luck, but you'll never be lucky enough to just exit subspace to somewhere you don't intend to go (without plot devices) and find that bunch of idle ships.

[Qent]

Gef bases and colonies are build inside hollowed out asteroids as far as I know.

Tangent, but it's comets IIRC.

[MatthTheGeek]

Remember how hard it was for the UEF to find the Agincourt without the help of an inside agent. Fair enough, it was after most of the UEF sensor infrastructure was nuked, and it doesn't stay in place very long, but it's still a ship around which a fair amount of subspace traffic happens.

This is much harder to hide than a few cruisers hidden in asteroid belts, near their bases, where they don't need to jump at all. Given the efficiency of the Gefs with bare fighters (did they needed any cruiser to disable the Hattie ? of course not), I expect the Gefs to use cruisers only as main defence for their hidden bases and last-resort firepower for emergency situations.

EDIT: Also, remember how hard for the GTVA it was to find the Wargods between the capture of the Agincourt and Aristeia. You don't need much effort to hide something in space, as long as subspace traffic is low or unexistant.

[-Norbert-]

Gef bases and colonies are build inside hollowed out asteroids as far as I know.

Tangent, but it's comets IIRC.

Wether you live in an asteriod or comet won't make any impact on nature, which is the reason for the Gefs to not live on planets.
And to live on something that regularly crosses the asteroid belt at high speed sounds like a rather bad idea. Much better to settle inside an asteroids, hidden among other asteroids and in a far more stable orbit.

And I know that space is incredibly massive, but we are talking about a system that has a massive amount of traffic going on, and had a very well developed and deployed sensor net. They were mining in the belt, patroling it, had sensors in place, ect.
Now I know it's not impossible to slip a few cruisers through all that, but the Gefs surely won't turn up with a fleet of cruisers all of a sudden.

[General Battuta]

There are Oort and Kuiper objects that never enter the inner solar system.

[-Norbert-]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't an object only called a comet, if it get's close enough to the sun to get a "tail" at some point of it's orbit?
While there are objects beyond the asteroid belt, they wouldn't be called comets.

[Aramil]

There are Oort and Kuiper objects that never enter the inner solar system.

I agree. and a lot of empty-ish space out after that so quite easy to have something hidden, although I am sure it would still be nothing to large, modded transports/carriers, maybe a few real fighting machines.

To large and sophisticated a fleet would of draw some serious attention at some point.