Honorverse ramblings and musings

Vince wrote:Sphinx was "barely 15.3 million kilometers inside the hyper limit". Filareta "came in about twelve light-seconds shy of the limit". “Call it eighteen-point-niner million kilometers to Sphinx."

Quotes from A Rising Thunder, Chapter 20.

While I will accept the nit. I did say ~ (about) I actually had to go look it up and my quick scan through was from Honor's deck to make sure of the distances for both in that post.

Have fun,
T2M

George J. Smith wrote:

cthia wrote:So, are you all saying that the forts could have destroyed Filareta's force or no?

Because, as I've said, IIRC, the advisement to Elizabeth was, paraphrasing, "the forts are online Elizabeth, and each of them (techno mumbo jumbo), so the only thing in question is how long it'll take to turn any SLN fleet to space dust."

I'm sorry I cannot find that particular passage. I thought it in ART, but either I'm missing it or it's in another.

But the point from the passage I'm referencing made it clear that the forts could deal with any SLN force that could soon be thrown at them. It doesn't seem likely that the SLN could just hyper in on a certain course and remain clear of the forts. Or what good are they or the summation given to Elizabeth?

It's not nice to lie to Mother Nature. And Elizabeth is Mother Nature — being such a force of nature.

My Bolding

I believe the reference was to the forts that were emplaced around the wormhole in the Talbott Quadrant

Hi George,

Yep. I just looked it up. It has reference within the context of Hamish's conversation with the the cabinet and the queen about Crandall's impending attack on Spindle. They reference is about whether or not it would be safe to move the SDPs to Spindle to reinforce Mike. Hamish's response is that those forts were designed to withstand the attack of 250 of Manticore's own pre-Apollo SDPs. As for Crandall's SDs, Hamish says, "Your Majesty, at the risk of sounding immodest, the only real question would be how long it took us to blow all seventy-one of them out of space." MOH p. 600 nook edition

Don

George J. Smith wrote:

cthia wrote:So, are you all saying that the forts could have destroyed Filareta's force or no?

Because, as I've said, IIRC, the advisement to Elizabeth was, paraphrasing, "the forts are online Elizabeth, and each of them (techno mumbo jumbo), so the only thing in question is how long it'll take to turn any SLN fleet to space dust."

I'm sorry I cannot find that particular passage. I thought it in ART, but either I'm missing it or it's in another.

But the point from the passage I'm referencing made it clear that the forts could deal with any SLN force that could soon be thrown at them. It doesn't seem likely that the SLN could just hyper in on a certain course and remain clear of the forts. Or what good are they or the summation given to Elizabeth?

It's not nice to lie to Mother Nature. And Elizabeth is Mother Nature — being such a force of nature.

My Bolding

I believe the reference was to the forts that were emplaced around the wormhole in the Talbott Quadrant

n7axw wrote:Hi George,

Yep. I just looked it up. It has reference within the context of Hamish's conversation with the the cabinet and the queen about Crandall's impending attack on Spindle. They reference is about whether or not it would be safe to move the SDPs to Spindle to reinforce Mike. Hamish's response is that those forts were designed to withstand the attack of 250 of Manticore's own pre-Apollo SDPs. As for Crandall's SDs, Hamish says, "Your Majesty, at the risk of sounding immodest, the only real question would be how long it took us to blow all seventy-one of them out of space." MOH p. 600 nook edition

Don

Yes. That is the passage I was referencing. Thanks for researching it Don, as I was catching no joy. Obviously, I got my star systems crossed. I'll blame it on my astrogator. She's a snotty, but she's cute. Actually she's beautiful, being an ex-sex-slave.

Question. Does this mean that Spindle has better, or more substantial fort coverage, or just less space to cover?

And I just don't understand why the Manty Home system doesn't enjoy, or will soon enjoy, "blanket fort coverage." I know space is huge, but your Home system houses your Queen, so hypering into a super power's Home system should be like entering a hornet's nest. The way I see it, there should be forts on top of forts. I just can't get away from that. But no one asked me, huh?

At this point Spindle itself has no forts at all. When Crandall attacked the defense was primarily Mk 23 pods run by a squadron of Sag-Cs with Nikes and Rolands along with LACs as back up.

The reason Manticore is so heavily defended is due to the junction being such valuable real estate and the consequence of 20 years of war. Spindle just recently became Manticoran territory.

Don

n7axw wrote:At this point Spindle itself has no forts at all. When Crandall attacked the defense was primarily Mk 23 pods run by a squadron of Sag-Cs with Nikes and Rolands along with LACs as back up.

The reason Manticore is so heavily defended is due to the junction being such valuable real estate and the consequence of 20 years of war. Spindle just recently became Manticoran territory.

Don

Yep, it was the Lynx terminus (not even the Lynx system itself) that got the forts. Because Manticore really doesn't want anyone taking over one of their wormholes again.

And as the failed pounce at Basilisk showed, if they can take the terminus in a quick pounce you have to divert major forces for months to go the long way and recover it. Much better to put heavy enough forts to have a good chance of holding it in the first place.

But a terminus is a heck of a lot smaller defensive area than an entire star system; even the parts inside the hyper limit.
And of course Manticore had Home Fleet as it's primary defense - so upgrading its fixed defenses probably wasn't quite as high a priority as making sure someone couldn't mousetrap forces at a terminus. (Even Gryphon got a higher priority because Home fleet couldn't respond as quickly).
And Manticore is unlikely to ever rely entirely on 'fixed' defenses; so completing the forts doesn't seem likely to let the Admiralty massively scale back Home Fleet...


But once Manticore get their yards rebuilt I'm sure that completing the forts, their supporting Mycroft nodes, and all the new system defense missile pods, will be a fairly high priority. Maybe not quite as high a priority and getting that stuff installed at Beowulf; since that's a lot closer to the current combat front - and Manticore still has a Home Fleet capable of easily vaporizing the rest of the SLN should it appear - but reasonably high priority.

RIP

Terry Pratchett passed today

There aren't enough female ship handlers. Who do we have left?

Michelle Henke
Alice Truman
Up and coming Abigail Hearns
Genevieve Chin
And of course Honor.

Shannon and Sonja won't be driving any time soon. Not sure if Shannon can even be considered a ship handler, as we've only seen her at tactical. Though it would be nice to see what she can accomplish with a fleet of her own. We never got a chance to see that side of her.

She reminded me of Kirk, as much as did Honor.

cthia wrote:There aren't enough female ship handlers. Who do we have left?

Michelle Henke
Alice Truman
Up and coming Abigail Hearns
Genevieve Chin
And of course Honor.

Shannon and Sonja won't be driving any time soon. Not sure if Shannon can even be considered a ship handler, as we've only seen her at tactical. Though it would be nice to see what she can accomplish with a fleet of her own. We never got a chance to see that side of her.

She reminded me of Kirk, as much as did Honor.

You forgot Helen Zilwicki.

Kizarvexis wrote:

cthia wrote:There aren't enough female ship handlers. Who do we have left?

Michelle Henke
Alice Truman
Up and coming Abigail Hearns
Genevieve Chin
And of course Honor.

Shannon and Sonja won't be driving any time soon. Not sure if Shannon can even be considered a ship handler, as we've only seen her at tactical. Though it would be nice to see what she can accomplish with a fleet of her own. We never got a chance to see that side of her.

She reminded me of Kirk, as much as did Honor.

You forgot Helen Zilwicki.

Ouch! That's an oversight I hope the Admiralty doesn't make.

Thanks.


****** *


I was thinking again. How many LACs could a tricked out freighter hold? If convoys began traveling with a converted freighter/LAC carrier, pirates just may deem it's not worth it after being caught a few times counting their chickens before their eggs hatched. Especially if the hatchlings are freighters laying LACs. The entire operation could be tasked thru Thomas Bachfish.

And why don't freighter convoys carry military-grade sensors? Wouldn't early detection increase their chances of survival? Seems the cost would be well worth it, considering it's a lot cheaper than losing an entire convoy, personnel and cargo.

Kizarvexis wrote:

cthia wrote:There aren't enough female ship handlers. Who do we have left?

Michelle Henke
Alice Truman
Up and coming Abigail Hearns
Genevieve Chin
And of course Honor.

Shannon and Sonja won't be driving any time soon. Not sure if Shannon can even be considered a ship handler, as we've only seen her at tactical. Though it would be nice to see what she can accomplish with a fleet of her own. We never got a chance to see that side of her.

She reminded me of Kirk, as much as did Honor.

You forgot Helen Zilwicki.

Hey, I get to grab a clue-by-four and twhack y'all for a change...

Y'all forgot our favorite new FEMALE treecat in Naval Uniform... also known as Naomi Kaplan.

Plus Cynthia Lecter, Veronica Armstrong, and....

Ganny El!!