SLN reserve possibilities

fallsfromtrees wrote:

n7axw wrote:
I don't think anybody has a hacksaw capable of that job!!!

Those of you who read "A Call to Duty" in the Manticore Ascendant series where they did just that to a Battlecruiser to try to get two ships instead of one for rescue purposes in Manitcore's inner system? Really didn't work out very well, as I recall.

Don

I'm not sure the SLN has figured out that there is such a thing as an SD(P). Remember that the only time they have come up against SDs was at Second Manticore, and there it was primarily system defense missiles that did the damage, not the SD(P)s, in addition to which we don't have much textev about how much the SLN has been told about the details of second Manticore, just that it occurred and that the SLN basically took it in the shorts.

Oh, the SDLN knows about the SD(P)s. They don't know the full details about them, but they know that SD(P)s exist and are very very nasty.

Hi Zakharra,

You might be right on this one. But how are you arriving at your conclusion here?

I know that there were Solarian reporters on Manticore when Lester Tourville's ships came over the hyper wall at the first BOM. And I am sure they knew there was one heck of a battle. But none of them would have been in position to actually see what happened to pass along the info in the unlikely event at that point that anyone in Old Chicago was listening.

True, the SDPs have been around a long time, but what stands out in the textev is that the League wasn't conducting serious intel in the Haven sector and also wasn't paying any attention to reports that came their way...

Don

n7axw wrote:Hi Zakharra,

You might be right on this one. But how are you arriving at your conclusion here?

I know that there were Solarian reporters on Manticore when Lester Tourville's ships came over the hyper wall at the first BOM. And I am sure they knew there was one heck of a battle. But none of them would have been in position to actually see what happened to pass along the info in the unlikely event at that point that anyone in Old Chicago was listening.

True, the SDPs have been around a long time, but what stands out in the textev is that the League wasn't conducting serious intel in the Haven sector and also wasn't paying any attention to reports that came their way...

Don

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Don / Zakharra and all --

I think the reports are there, but are hidden / dismissed in the Sollie "not invented here" attitude.
As a result of Lancoon II and Spindle (and its Sollie survivors), the SLN has accurate reports and their own sensor readings for the Mk16 and FTL Comm and some FTL fire control.
I do not believe they have direct SD(P) interaction (yet) since BOM II was primarily pre-positioned pods.
The second-hand reports are likely there since the RMN has openly used SD(P)'s since Buttercup, and the IAN and RHN have shown they have them. Erehwon likely does as well (or under construction for themselves and, unofficially, for Maya).

-- Stewart

I think the best use of SLN SDs, by anyone to include the SLN, is scrap metal. Kingsford flat out states this to Kolotsokov in A Rising Thunder after Rajampet's assisted 'suicide'.

The second best use, if you have the time, money, facilities and if the capability exists, would be to automate them to the point where you could use it as a giant, unmanned free-flying decoy under the control of ships that you actually care about. In other words, a gigantic one-use missile sponge to soak up enemy fire while the real ships go about the business of shooting.

Note that the RMN has none of the prerequisites to put the second best use into use, except maybe the capability (the knowledge only). The SLN is even worse off having none of the prerequisites except maybe the facilities, which no doubt will be soon overloaded with higher priorities.

n7axw wrote:I know that there were Solarian reporters on Manticore when Lester Tourville's ships came over the hyper wall at the first BOM. And I am sure they knew there was one heck of a battle. But none of them would have been in position to actually see what happened to pass along the info in the unlikely event at that point that anyone in Old Chicago was listening.

Did you turn on your TV on the morning of Sept 11, 2001? What was every station showing? There were a few billion people in the Manticore system who were very, very interested in what was going on. My guess is that the media was perfectly willing to cater to them, as they had the same interest.

kzt wrote:

n7axw wrote:I know that there were Solarian reporters on Manticore when Lester Tourville's ships came over the hyper wall at the first BOM. And I am sure they knew there was one heck of a battle. But none of them would have been in position to actually see what happened to pass along the info in the unlikely event at that point that anyone in Old Chicago was listening.

Did you turn on your TV on the morning of Sept 11, 2001? What was every station showing? There were a few billion people in the Manticore system who were very, very interested in what was going on. My guess is that the media was perfectly willing to cater to them, as they had the same interest.

yes they would have. But what would they have seen. A bunch of talking heads, as the battle itself was taking place millions of miles away from Manticore itself, and there would have been no convenient camera ships broadcasting information or tactical data back to the home planet. In fact, I don't believe that the FTL transmitters were in other than military use at that time, so the transmission times would have been extensive.

fallsfromtrees wrote:

kzt wrote:[quote="n7axw"
I know that there were Solarian reporters on Manticore when Lester Tourville's ships came over the hyper wall at the first BOM. And I am sure they knew there was one heck of a battle. But none of them would have been in position to actually see what happened to pass along the info in the unlikely event at that point that anyone in Old Chicago was listening.

Did you turn on your TV on the morning of Sept 11, 2001? What was every station showing? There were a few billion people in the Manticore system who were very, very interested in what was going on. My guess is that the media was perfectly willing to cater to them, as they had the same interest.

yes they would have. But what would they have seen. A bunch of talking heads, as the battle itself was taking place millions of miles away from Manticore itself, and there would have been no convenient camera ships broadcasting information or tactical data back to the home planet. In fact, I don't believe that the FTL transmitters were in other than military use at that time, so the transmission times would have been extensive.[/quote]
Also there is operational security and OSL and items from OSL can't be made public without approval of high me authorities in Admiralty.

fallsfromtrees wrote:yes they would have. But what would they have seen. A bunch of talking heads, as the battle itself was taking place millions of miles away from Manticore itself, and there would have been no convenient camera ships broadcasting information or tactical data back to the home planet. In fact, I don't believe that the FTL transmitters were in other than military use at that time, so the transmission times would have been extensive.

It sure is lucky that there was not a single civilian ship in the entire manticore system, because if there was one they would have noticed hundreds of 8mt ships moving under drive. The next election, after the government told the citizens to STFU and refused to answer any questions about how their kids got killed - just like happened after Pearl Harbor, Singspore, and September 11th, sure would have been wonderful as the happy citizens all cheered.

kzt wrote:

fallsfromtrees wrote:yes they would have. But what would they have seen. A bunch of talking heads, as the battle itself was taking place millions of miles away from Manticore itself, and there would have been no convenient camera ships broadcasting information or tactical data back to the home planet. In fact, I don't believe that the FTL transmitters were in other than military use at that time, so the transmission times would have been extensive.

It sure is lucky that there was not a single civilian ship in the entire manticore system, because if there was one they would have noticed hundreds of 8mt ships moving under drive. The next election, after the government told the citizens to STFU and refused to answer any questions about how their kids got killed - just like happened after Pearl Harbor, Singspore, and September 11th, sure would have been wonderful as the happy citizens all cheered.

That's not what he said, and you know it. He said that it was unlikely that there was detailed tactical information on the news, not that there was any sort of ridiculous censorship like that.

That's not what he said, and you know it. He said that it was unlikely that there was detailed tactical information on the news, not that there was any sort of ridiculous censorship like that.

Also, most of the civilian ships were probably heading away from the battle as fast as their drives could manage under redline conditions. Of course there are always a few Darwin Award candidates who would be heading toward the battle to get a closer look. Those who survived might have had some interesting footage to sell to the media after the fact, but without military sensors what they would have been able to obtain would have been severely limited.