The enemy in "extended space": SLN or MAlign

SharkHunter wrote:One of the things I think happens next has to do with the fact that Zilwicki is back in RMN space: everything he knows is going to be gone over with a fine tooth comb by ONI, including knowledge of the Cataphract's, etc. were supplied both to the PNE and Filareta, meaning that any known-to-be significant missile supplier's star system is likely to receive an highly unwelcome surprise in the form of a visiting GA- based task group. They don't necessarily have to blow the system's infrastructure to smithereens, just announce "this system is under blockade/embargo relative to military cargo".

SharkHunter wrote:That also has the advantage of probably keeping a big chunk of the SLN reserve in mothballs; what are those ships going to attack with really old missile tech, i.e. the Honorverse equivalent of long distance paintball launchers?

I would also have to think that systems like Yildun and those dominated by long time trans stellars formerly headquartered on or trading extensively with Mesa will be on that list; it serves the purposes of depriving the SLN of arms or weapons and the MAlign of the cover of darkness. Gotta be a whole lot of smoking guns lying around that mess.

fallsfromtrees wrote:Not clear how many smoking guns are left on Mesa. Houdini seems to have done a pretty good job of getting rid of any smoking guns that don't point right back to Mesa itself, rather than the MAlign.

SharkHunter wrote:Houdini didn't take all the tran stellar bureaucrats and their records with them, all sorts of interesting bits. Knowing whose been bribed and corrupted throughout the rest of the SL by the transtellars, shipping records through Balescu Station, etc. all useful information bits proving the MAlign's penetration, etc. Nice roadmap, plus Herlander Simoes is also in Manticoran space and obvioiusly will trust Zilwicki implicitly. Consider what happens if our favorite super spies discover that Jack McBryde had family, and they're not on Mesa, anymore, hmmmm.

dreamrider wrote:I hope nobody who frequents this forum would seriously think that an operation a ruthless and meticulously planned as Houdini would leave the records of any of the evacuated, or their family connections, in any usable form.

Besides...
"Joe is missing, since 2 weeks before the uprising." What does that get you?

Further...
Balescue Station was just one of many routings for the evacuated away from Mesa, and one of many transit and cut out points even for the groups of evacuees that passed through there. We must further assume that all records at that station of names, origins, destinations, and even numbers of Houdini transitees were falsified, or never recorded. I don't think that route is going to lead anywhere either.

I think the only prayer of defining, then finding Darius in the near term comes when Zack McBryde and companion break off their route, either willingly, or because they don't know how to continue it, or because they call at Parmalee Station. Then some area limitation intelligence analysis, aided by Zack and his companion's various bits of knowledge, becomes possible. And I don't think they will find Darius. I think they will find Mannerheim involvement, and Felix, and the Twins...and then be able to localize Darius.

dreamrider

n7axw wrote:

dreamrider wrote:I hope nobody who frequents this forum would seriously think that an operation a ruthless and meticulously planned as Houdini would leave the records of any of the evacuated, or their family connections, in any usable form.

Besides... "Joe is missing, since 2 weeks before the uprising." What does that get you?

Further... Balescue Station was just one of many routings for the evacuated away from Mesa, and one of many transit and cut out points even for the groups of evacuees that passed through there. We must further assume that all records at that station of names, origins, destinations, and even numbers of Houdini transitees were falsified, or never recorded. I don't think that route is going to lead anywhere either.

I think the only prayer of defining, then finding Darius in the near term comes when Zack McBryde and companion break off their route, either willingly, or because they don't know how to continue it, or because they call at Parmalee Station. Then some area limitation intelligence analysis, aided by Zack and his companion's various bits of knowledge, becomes possible. And I don't think they will find Darius. I think they will find Mannerheim involvement, and Felix, and the Twins...and then be able to localize Darius.

dreamrider

I agree with your term "ruthlessly". I am less confident about "meticulously". The way Houdini was moved up and the haste in its execution seems to me to create lots of opportunity for loose ends to be lying around...you know, Murphy's law.

Don

dreamrider wrote:I hope nobody who frequents this forum would seriously think that an operation a ruthless and meticulously planned as Houdini would leave the records of any of the evacuated, or their family connections, in any usable form.

Besides... "Joe is missing, since 2 weeks before the uprising." What does that get you?

Further... Balescue Station was just one of many routings for the evacuated away from Mesa, and one of many transit and cut out points even for the groups of evacuees that passed through there. We must further assume that all records at that station of names, origins, destinations, and even numbers of Houdini transitees were falsified, or never recorded. I don't think that route is going to lead anywhere either.

I think the only prayer of defining, then finding Darius in the near term comes when Zack McBryde and companion break off their route, either willingly, or because they don't know how to continue it, or because they call at Parmalee Station. Then some area limitation intelligence analysis, aided by Zack and his companion's various bits of knowledge, becomes possible. And I don't think they will find Darius. I think they will find Mannerheim involvement, and Felix, and the Twins...and then be able to localize Darius.

dreamrider

n7axw wrote:I agree with your term "ruthlessly". I am less confident about "meticulously". The way Houdini was moved up and the haste in its execution seems to me to create lots of opportunity for loose ends to be lying around...you know, Murphy's law.

Don

SharkHunter wrote:Especially because RFC states that the wheels were coming off of the meticulous plans. It isn't just "Zilwicki is smart", either, what he and Ruth collectively represent with their computer talents is the ability to sift through massive amounts of information to find the useful threads. Even under the assumption that "they've vanished completely", the fact is that the GA now controls Mesa, and you can bet that while the tran-stellars weren't part of the onion, they definitely know who was corrupted by Manpower, etc. throughout the Solarian League, and maybe enough to "pull on other threads" even in Haven Sector space.

So, for example, someone within the vanished Onion needs to pull on an exposed string to accomplish some nefarious purpose. That's still a danger to the MAlign because all "threads of the web" eventually lead back to a spider.

SharkHunter wrote: Even under the assumption that "they've vanished completely", the fact is that the GA now controls Mesa, and you can bet that while the tran-stellars weren't part of the onion, they definitely know who was corrupted by Manpower, etc. throughout the Solarian League, and maybe enough to "pull on other threads" even in Haven Sector space.

So, for example, someone within the vanished Onion needs to pull on an exposed string to accomplish some nefarious purpose. That's still a danger to the MAlign because all "threads of the web" eventually lead back to a spider.

JohnRoth wrote:There are signs that the MAlign has a parallel operation; that is, it doesn't depend on Manpower or the other transstellars for any part of its operations. Part of the reason is that they expected Manpower and many of the transstellars to go belly up as the Solarian League collapsed. Depending on them would be stupid.

One interesting possibility is that the GA may start finding the streak drive couriers, now that they have the records from multiple wormhole termini to compare.

Apropos of that, there are parts we haven't seen yet, like the shift in the MAlign's intelligence, command and control network from being centered on Mesa to being centered somewhere else (probably Darius, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's elsewhere).

n7axw wrote:Yeah. Manpower and the other outlaw transstellars were merely serving as a smoke screen for the Alignment without connections to its actual operations.

It will be interesting to see how things continue to come unglued which we know it will sinse RFC is not planning to write an infinite number of books!

Don

n7axw wrote:

dreamrider wrote:I hope nobody who frequents this forum would seriously think that an operation a ruthless and meticulously planned as Houdini would leave the records of any of the evacuated, or their family connections, in any usable form.

Besides...
"Joe is missing, since 2 weeks before the uprising." What does that get you?

Further...
Balescue Station was just one of many routings for the evacuated away from Mesa, and one of many transit and cut out points even for the groups of evacuees that passed through there. We must further assume that all records at that station of names, origins, destinations, and even numbers of Houdini transitees were falsified, or never recorded. I don't think that route is going to lead anywhere either.

I think the only prayer of defining, then finding Darius in the near term comes when Zack McBryde and companion break off their route, either willingly, or because they don't know how to continue it, or because they call at Parmalee Station. Then some area limitation intelligence analysis, aided by Zack and his companion's various bits of knowledge, becomes possible. And I don't think they will find Darius. I think they will find Mannerheim involvement, and Felix, and the Twins...and then be able to localize Darius.

dreamrider

I agree with your term "ruthlessly". I am less confident about "meticulously". The way Houdini was moved up and the haste in its execution seems to me to create lots of opportunity for loose ends to be lying around...you know, Murphy's law.

Don