Hm. Those are some pretty good things to work with. I'll need to drag up the Death Race Cliff's Notes for research purposes. I did have a couple scenarios with at least one traitor, or at least a character with a well-intentioned but sadly misguided motive.

A rival protectorate/server does sound plausible, but it's kind of going over my head why a member protectorate of the Vanali Federation would attack what may be the faction's flagship protectorate?

Maybe it's a protectorate that recently seceded or a protectorate of Vanali expatriates? What might be their reason for risking weakening the VPF just to take out the Mindcrack Protectorate?

And don't worry. Rambling is okay. :D