Theemile wrote:cthia wrote:
<snip>
This Admiral's sentiment matches Byng's, IMO, giving much respect. Byng fired on Chatterly's 3 Destroyers with their wedges down. Say what you will about Byng, but he had absolutely no problem appreciating Manty tech. Truth of the matter be told, Byng didn't harbor any misconceptions about Manty capabilities. And neither did Admiral Hadju. Heck, as far as Hadju knew, 120k missiles wouldn't do any thing but cripple the opponent leaving them battle capable. He needed to mission kill them! F**king pesky Manties.
The way things have panned out for the gorilla, Rosiak could have been spouting more arrogance in the previous engagement. Heck, the Manties are destroying ships of the wall with heavy cruisers. Which means they already requisition their hardware from God, or Tester.
Not saying I agree with his decision to fire the farm, I'm the one who wishes the SLN would send someone still not coloring by the numbers. I'm just saying I can understand the human frustration behind "See how they like that."
Edit: Hadju for Kotouc error caught by Louis R.
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um... have you read the book? A major subplot was Byng ruining a lieutenant's career for passing along an appreciation document of Manty capabilities. Byng pompously stated that he knew the state of the SLN FTL programs and what people said the Manties could do was impossible.
Byng didn't know JACK about Manty capabilities and knee-jerked the attack on the Destroyers.
Yes, yes . . . yes of course. I went back and forth about this with someone else. Of course Byng had no appreciation for Manty capabilities. No Solarian does outside the lone wolf back at ONI who no one listens to, has any appreciation for Manty capabilities. That's the real definition of institutional arrogance.*
BUT! It makes for a heck of a joke!
Why? Because through it all, when it came his turn to wrangle with the reality of the rumors, it was obvious to me that Byng was scared shitless! Which, IMO, shows a reeeeeeeal appreciation for whether or not those rumors were true considering how he chose to handle them.
Byng was scaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaared . . . shitless!
*BTW, my niece prefers to call it . . . institutional ignorance.