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capturing Alignment agents

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Re: capturing Alignment agents
Post by ThinksMarkedly   » Sun Dec 29, 2019 11:10 am

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Armed Neo-Bob wrote:These people are fanatics; her status as an Malign Agent was known to another Malign influencer who worked the financial news, who knew she was an alpha line. Just knowing about the different star lines puts both of them deep into the onion; they need to massage and spin the news immediately, not send it halfway around the galaxy to get the Detweiler's take on it.

Also, as journalists, they are in a good position to report to Franklin (?) or whoever is monitoring the pulse of the League, as well as Colin.
Rob


That her status was known to other agents was never in question. Having someone else who poses as a journalist would be seen, if investigated, as a normal, day-to-day occurrence. That's better than sitting in a park bench next to a financial analyst once every month. Like Gweon, she was the high profile agent.

But you're right that they're fanatics. The agents are screened for allegiance to the cause and wouldn't readily turn. However, she's also stuck with the legend she's built: she can't suddenly change character.
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Re: capturing Alignment agents
Post by Galactic Sapper   » Sun Dec 29, 2019 2:55 pm

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ThinksMarkedly wrote:It's still possible that O'Hanrahan deduced it was an evacuation, not that she was told in explicit terms it was so. It's not very likely, though, but I also fail to see the reason why she would need to know what the attacks were a cover for.

I'd say it's far more likely she deduced it was an evacuation rather than being told explicitly. I also don't see any reason why she'd need to know about the evacuation to continue spreading the stories the MAlignment wants spread, but she's far from stupid and knows enough about the Onion and galactic current events to expect the Manties to invade Mesa eventually. That the members of the Onion would not want to be present when that particular event happened is pretty self-evident.

The part that threw me was her apparent confidence that she would be protected from the scorched earth campaign. After all, picking her hotel room for her could just as easily been a way to keep her in harm's way as to keep her out of it. That the thought never even occurred to her seemed highly suspicious to me.
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Re: capturing Alignment agents
Post by kzt   » Sun Dec 29, 2019 3:03 pm

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Galactic Sapper wrote:The part that threw me was her apparent confidence that she would be protected from the scorched earth campaign. After all, picking her hotel room for her could just as easily been a way to keep her in harm's way as to keep her out of it. That the thought never even occurred to her seemed highly suspicious to me.

What's that line: “Why is it that people like you always think you’re more ruthless than people like me?”
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Re: capturing Alignment agents
Post by bert953   » Wed Jan 01, 2020 1:01 pm

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ThinksMarkedly wrote:Im wondering what the ghost hunters have in store for Ms Bolton. She's been identified as Gewon's control and with 5 MAlign agents already taken out of play, the ghost hunters can't wait too long or she will slip away. Someone suggested knockout gas in an elevator or some such method to incapacitae her without triggering her self-destruct. She can be interred at a black-ops medical facility, preferably in cryo-sleep (that tech should be available) until they come up with a way to overcome the nanites.

I had a previous suggestion that a mission impossible type senario might work here. "Mr. Phelps" could convince her that she barely escaped from old earth and is finally being debriefed by her handlers. Risky, but what the heck inaction just increases the chance that she gets away clean.

In fact, one of the Honorverse anthologies had story about a Solarian agent, Charles from "no such agency" that stopped a tech transfer from the SL to the Peeps. I always thought that Charles was a character we should hear from again.

Copy of my recent post in thread Charles 1922....
Just re-read the Timothy Zhan story "with one stone" I had forgotten that story. Looks Like Charles is a con man trying to sell useless (for war fighting) tech to the Peeps. I havent had a chance to read "an act of war" yet but that was the story I remembed where Charles seemed to be a Solly working for some secret organization. After re-reading it I'll post again.

I still think Charles has good potential as a character.

I also noticed that in "with one stone" Honor caused her ships to flicker her impeller strength, which caused FTL gravity ripples that she used to signal an Andies cruiser. At the end of the story, Admiral Hemphill was looking into this technique, which could have resulted in their FTL tech. Extrapolating, this would be a major contribution to the Manties war fighting tech.

"And since gravity pulses effectively moved faster than light and were detectable from much further away...
Especially if they could combine this idea with the new high-yield fusion bottles and superconductors being designed for the next generation electronic warfare drones, and mabye throw in something from the compact LAC beta nodes already undergoing testing over at BeauWeps..."


Please reread the other story. Like you, the first story makes it sound like he's a con man. But the second makes it sound like he's got friends in high places.
.[/quote]

Charles grimaced. “I suppose there’s no putting the genie back into the bottle now, is there?” he said.
“Very well. My name is—well, my real name is irrelevant. Just call me Charles. I’m part of an organization
of League citizens who strongly disagree with our government’s gutless neutrality in the Haven/Manticore
war. We see Haven as not only a threat to every other star nation around it, but also an oppressive
regime that deals out chaos and death to its own citizens. Since the League as a whole hasn’t seen fit to
get involved on the side of justice, we’ve decided to do so on our own.”
“Interesting,” Rabenstrange said. “
Herr
Weiss had mentioned that you have access to unusually
extensive information sources.”
“They’re actually more extensive than even
Herr
Weiss realizes,” Charles told him.

Ok, Ive re-read "An act of war" and it reads like a mission impossible script. The pertinent excerpt on Charles' identity is attached. Lots of potential for character development here since he disappeared soon afterwards and we only have his "word" for who he really is.[/quote]
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Re: capturing Alignment agents
Post by Armed Neo-Bob   » Sat Jan 04, 2020 1:37 am

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ThinksMarkedly wrote:
Armed Neo-Bob wrote:Actually, just the fact that she was aware of an ongoing evacuation puts her deeper in the onion than Jack McBride. All the way in? who knows? But McBride was never briefed on Houdini at all.

Rob


The evacuation happened a year after Jack decided to seek asylum. It was handled need-to-know basis, so it's possible that Jack hadn't known yet. Given his position in the Gamma Centre, he would likely be involved in the evacuation process far more deeply than O'Hanrahan.

It's still possible that O'Hanrahan deduced it was an evacuation, not that she was told in explicit terms it was so. It's not very likely, though, but I also fail to see the reason why she would need to know what the attacks were a cover for.


Not saying that--Albrecht said to Benjamin, iirc, that McBride had never been briefed on Houdini; even though it was a long-standing contingency.

If he had been briefed on it, then the Detweilers would have been even more desperate--as it was, they were more worried about Henke moving in from Talbot than they were about Caparelli and Givens shifting assets to catch them in the act. IOW, if McBride had known about it, or could have briefed Cachat/Zilwicki on it, then you get a very different response from the Detweilers, who wouldn't have taken the time to spin the "the Manties are crazy" stuff in the League while accelerating the exodus--they'd have taken everyone out they could move immediately and written off EVERYONE else.

Rob
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Re: capturing Alignment agents
Post by ThinksMarkedly   » Sat Jan 04, 2020 9:32 am

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[quote="Armed Neo-Bob"]If he had been briefed on it, then the Detweilers would have been even more desperate--as it was, they were more worried about Henke moving in from Talbot than they were about Caparelli and Givens shifting assets to catch them in the act. IOW, if McBride had known about it, or could have briefed Cachat/Zilwicki on it, then you get a very different response from the Detweilers, who wouldn't have taken the time to spin the "the Manties are crazy" stuff in the League while accelerating the exodus--they'd have taken everyone out they could move immediately and written off EVERYONE else./quote]

Very good points. They wouldn't have told anyone who they didn't absolutely need to that there was an evacuation plan and it wasn't merely a contingency, but planned all along. The fact that there is an evacuation implies there's somewhere to evacuate to and Jack did not need to know that. And even those organising the Mesa side of the evacuation did not need to know where they were being evacuated to either.

Like you said, if Cachat/Zilwicki had known an evacuation could happen, the GF would have moved on Mesa a lot sooner.
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Re: capturing Alignment agents
Post by Jonathan_S   » Mon Jan 06, 2020 6:10 pm

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Armed Neo-Bob wrote:
Actually, just the fact that she was aware of an ongoing evacuation puts her deeper in the onion than Jack McBride. All the way in? who knows? But McBride was never briefed on Houdini at all.

Rob

I was selective about what I quoted. It also said (IIRC a few paragraphs earlier) that she specifically wasn't told about Houdini or the evacuation - but she had enough background knowledge to assume that one was necessary and in progress. So when she's thinking they had to be gotten off more quickly that continuing the speculation about an evacuation rather than knowledge of one. (So basically what Galactic Sapper was thinking)

McBride might or might not have had the same background info that led her to assume an evacuation and cover-up would be needed.
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Re: capturing Alignment agents
Post by n7axw   » Mon Jan 06, 2020 11:39 pm

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It seems a bit strange that Jack wouldn't have been briefed about Houdini. IIRC, his brother was in advance of the need to move. Jack was chief of security for the gamma center, apparently at least as deep in the onion as his brother. Houdini could have been part of the info that he would have shared had he gotten out.

I don't think O'Hanrahan has a kill switch. She doesn't have any info to share. All ahe really knows is when her handlers tell her how to spin a story. Also, she has spent years building up that reputation for integrity. That could be useful to Malign in the future.

Also, I doubt that they will simply abandon their agents. Why should they? Gathering Intel and doing covert ops and influencing the direction of events are still going to need to be done and while keeping track of things might be more difficult from Darius, it wouldn't be impossibly so...

Don

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When any group seeks political power in God's name, both religion and politics are instantly corrupted.
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Re: capturing Alignment agents
Post by ThinksMarkedly   » Tue Jan 07, 2020 2:17 pm

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n7axw wrote:It seems a bit strange that Jack wouldn't have been briefed about Houdini. IIRC, his brother was in advance of the need to move. Jack was chief of security for the gamma center, apparently at least as deep in the onion as his brother. Houdini could have been part of the info that he would have shared had he gotten out.


I think he would have been briefed. He just hadn't yet been by the time he attempted to defect.

I don't think O'Hanrahan has a kill switch. She doesn't have any info to share. All ahe really knows is when her handlers tell her how to spin a story. Also, she has spent years building up that reputation for integrity. That could be useful to Malign in the future.

Also, I doubt that they will simply abandon their agents. Why should they? Gathering Intel and doing covert ops and influencing the direction of events are still going to need to be done and while keeping track of things might be more difficult from Darius, it wouldn't be impossibly so...


No doubt they are useful. And the MAlign might have been planning to continue to use their agents. The problem is now one of risk versus reward. They know they've been exposed and their best fronts (Manpower, Jessyk and other Mesan corporations) are under direct surveillance by the GA. The intelligence services of both the GA members and the SL are going to be very attentive to the information flow. The MAlign does not want to risk someone tracking the chain back to one of the RF members or the Felix wormhole.
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Re: capturing Alignment agents
Post by n7axw   » Tue Jan 07, 2020 4:13 pm

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ThinksMarkedly wrote:
n7axw wrote:It seems a bit strange that Jack wouldn't have been briefed about Houdini. IIRC, his brother was in advance of the need to move. Jack was chief of security for the gamma center, apparently at least as deep in the onion as his brother. Houdini could have been part of the info that he would have shared had he gotten out.


I think he would have been briefed. He just hadn't yet been by the time he attempted to defect.

I don't think O'Hanrahan has a kill switch. She doesn't have any info to share. All ahe really knows is when her handlers tell her how to spin a story. Also, she has spent years building up that reputation for integrity. That could be useful to Malign in the future.

Also, I doubt that they will simply abandon their agents. Why should they? Gathering Intel and doing covert ops and influencing the direction of events are still going to need to be done and while keeping track of things might be more difficult from Darius, it wouldn't be impossibly so...


No doubt they are useful. And the MAlign might have been planning to continue to use their agents. The problem is now one of risk versus reward. They know they've been exposed and their best fronts (Manpower, Jessyk and other Mesan corporations) are under direct surveillance by the GA. The intelligence services of both the GA members and the SL are going to be very attentive to the information flow. The MAlign does not want to risk someone tracking the chain back to one of the RF members or the Felix wormhole.


I doubt that any of the agents would be aware of either the rf or wormhole. You would only need a very small group of people to communicate with agent handlers and not even these people would need to be fully briefed beyond what is needed to accomplish objective.

Don

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When any group seeks political power in God's name, both religion and politics are instantly corrupted.
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