cthia wrote:crewdude48 wrote:There is no way to do what you want and still leave Manticore a Star nation. Considering the level of technology and record keeping they have had since the formation of the Kingdom, they would be able to track down that accountant on Beowoulf who is Elizabeth's 14th cousin twice removed. (Ever seen King Ralph?)
Furthermore, considering that they have been at war, or preparing for war, for as long as they have been, they most likely fallow something similar to the "designated survivor" protocols that the US government fallows.
Assuming that Honor is the only survivor of every title of nobility, she could probably assert a claim of Queen, but the level of devastation required to get to that means that her subjects would be only a few thousand battered and dying people.
My bold to call attention.I don't recall Detweiler requesting that that be a prerequisite, nor can I ever imagine — even in
my wildest meanderings — that Detty'd even care.
crewdude48 wrote:You were the one who requested that prerequisite. In order for Honor to become Queen, there needs to be something for her to be queen of.
Why wouldn't there
be something for Honor to be Queen of, in at least the least sense? (MAlign humor.) Again, this was a precision strike at the coronary artery of the government's. Only!
The planet will still be there, along with its infrastructure. And 99.9999 percent of the population will still be there. The only people killed were the only people targeted — military targets. This was a humane EE violation,
if there really is such a thing. It was certainly one that was metered. What do you know, in a strange turn of events, innocent bystanders were not a part of some piss-ant explanation of collateral damage for a change. And just perhaps, just maybe, these are MAlign seeds of goodwill sown towards its enemies. It is the same message that Honor sent Theisman, that Theisman accepted and reciprocated...
"We are willing to exercise restraint. But we don't have to."
Yet in this case, the message and example goes out as a warning to the rest of the galaxy. The lesson is too late for Manticore. You don't survive a direct lesson in "Advanced MA EE Strikes" - Anisimovna.
You should preorder her book. And the companion "Leveraging the Kill." (Available for preorder on the "Honorverse Bestseller List" soon). Manticore should have read their reading assignment. And just like the Havenites' own disadvantage of not being able to conceptually read the obvious implications of Apollo, so too it is with the Manticorans and MAlign technology.
"We rewrote the book on EEV."
****** *
I understand some of you being appalled. Contemplation of such a complete and utter loss of key figures is like a blow to the stomach. I think what offends, if we're honest with ourselves and strip away all of the fake ablative armor, is the mere sobering of the very reality that it could happen.
It is like being caught in the deer-lights of possibility. Stuck, frozen. Immobile. Maybe even gripped with fear. And the anger that occurs along with simply a natural, yet illogical reflex action.
No one thought that the Battle of Manticore would happen, let alone the Second Battle. This thing I've laid out could happen. The implication of the "balance of power tipping technology" invites this scenario to the party. Anisimova is the Salamander's counterpart, and just like the Salamander, she also doesn't think that the surface of the strategic possibilities of their technology has even been scratched. The development of Apollo hasn't cornered the market on that.
The complete and utter stealth of MAlign tech moves EE violation capability into a new realm. Gone are the need for the crude and rude swarmings of a planet with saturating projectiles. The MA has designed weaponry to complement this new turn in warfare -- completely scientific, specialized computer controlled planetary bombardments offering optimum rewards meted out in precise surgical strikes. One of the bottlenecks in this "precision strike" MAlign tech was, surprisingly, the computer's software. They've got state of the art computers but software designers had fallen behind writing code for these beasts. Whose job is to accomplish only one thing. Completely Surgical and Precision Planetary Strikes. (CSAPPS)
These computers would analyze every ship in space, TVs (Threat Vectors) and their programmed reaction times and ability to intercept. (The MAlign have been sitting and watching.) These powerful computers would produce the vectors of optimum launch, producing this (CSAPPS) acronym for the named strike — as a factor of the hot, tree-like sap that is found from the melted debris at the sites of these strikes prompting them to become humorously known in MAlign parlance as Sap Suckers.
Edit: good will, goodwill
.
