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Title Posted
Keyhole platform survivability Nov 2006
Coursers and the Fall of Kontovar Oct 2006
The nature of the hradani and the Rage Oct 2006
Survival of the Church of Humanity Unchained Sep 2006
Relationships between universes Sep 2006
Misconceptions about the League Aug 2006
Stability of the Republic of Haven and system secession Jul 2006
FTL fire control communication lag May 2006
Expanding upon the Eridani Edict Dec 2005
Manticore's relationship with Beowulf Dec 2005

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Pearls of Weber

A collection of posts by David Weber containing background information for his stories, collected and generously made available Joe Buckley.

The Mesan Spider Drive

  • Series: Honorverse
  • Date: March 17, 2009

…To the nameless Fly who sent me the e-mail pointing out (a) that the Mesan spider-drive ships mounting the attack on Manticore couldn't possibly tank enough reaction mass for the mission and (b) that the flare of their fusion drives would completely negate any stealth advantages of the spider drive itself, I will simply say that the spider drive ships do not use reaction drives. The scout ships do use reaction thrusters to propel themselves out of the freighter bays in which they were transported to Manticore, but we've seen Honorverse impeller drive ships using reaction thrusters to maneuver lots of times before. In short, this is not going to be a case of Honor's tactics at Cerberus, although some of the same "blind spots" which afflicted General Chernock's units at Cerberus do have parallels in Manticore's preparedness. (And, no, one of those blind spots is not a failure to look for visual cues from little things like massed fusion thrusters.)