Would you mind listing the sources of this information?
Not at all.
Halsey leaving politics is just speculation. She seem to be in a more 'spiritual' mindset at the moment.
The coming of a new Eranin War seem obvious. The two main aggressors of the 3300 Eranin war, Patreus and Hudson are building for war and Eranin is 'featured' heavily in the last newsletter. Missions for landmines, makes me think that we may even see ground combat scenarios.[up]
The situation of the Alliance is deducted from FFE history. In FFE the main story had several branches, based on player choice. We don't know for sure, which one FD has chosen to follow.
The 'Thargoid story' had three main branches:
- Player deliver Mycoid antidote to Thargoids. The Alliance/Thargoid faction wins. We get galactic peace and Thargoid goodies.
- Player deliver Mycoid missil to Thargoid mother ship for INRA. Fed/Imp faction wins. Fed/Imp faction breaks up and all three major factions are in cold ware state. Thargoids are dead.
- Player skips/fails either mission. Thargoids just leaves human space. Alliance is left alone and forced to it's knees. Fed/Imp faction breaks up and all is back to 'normal'.
I think the last option fits best with our current situation.
This scenario is best summed up in this article in the Alliance newspaper 'Frontier News' after player fails to deliver antidote:
**********************
WHITHER THE THARGOIDS NOW?
M.C.S
So the 'Argent's Quest' is back in base and the post-mortem has begun. There are a lot of questions that need to be answered, not least amongst them, how the strategists at the AIS could possible have made such a fundamental error in their choice of Commander for what was the galaxy's most audacious voyage. We needed a Commander with skill, a cool head and, above all, the courage to carry through whatever task presented itself and we failed absolutely to find the right person. The diplomatic pressures now being applied to the AIS are not to be taken lightly and it seems likely that, at least in the current generation, a further flight will prove diplomatically impossible.
Our politicians have a certain basic integrity and it is unlikely that they will be able to avoid signing the Treaties being offered them. The welfare of Alliance citizens comes first and there are too many good offers being made for us to turn them down. SO, the five Quest class ships will almost certainly be the last to be built and the four remaining will have no-sale edicts enforced so that those with personal conquest in mind will not be able to take advantage of the overwhelming advantage Quest ownership offers.
It won't stop other ship-designers from attempting to emulate the feat, but few have the necessary resources and none have the combined skills and experience of the Turner-Argent partnership.
*********************
Hope this explains a bit.