The Initiative 8th Fleet Seized
Hear ye. Here ye. 8th Fleet was created for attack. As an instrument of destruction, first. Defense, second. Certainly Home System Defense, should already be covered by, Home Fleet. If you want 8th Fleet to sit at home and get in Home Fleets business, then what does Home Fleet do? (What does the dishwasher do?)
If you still indeed do, want 8th Fleet to do D'Orville's job, then send D'Orville's ass out on maneuvers to do Honor's job. Let him get his ass shot off over something called a Sanskrit. But, stop fudging and do one or the other. We're trying to win a war here.
The RMN utilized it's interior lines. It is their biggest advantage. They relied on their pickets operating inside those same lines to keep the Admiralty apprised of any significant change in Peep movement, keeping an ever present watchful eye on the possibility of a Case Zulu. That's what they were supposed to do. The only way the Peep attack could be carried out was because of Bolthole. Which again is a failure of ONI. Not the Admiralty.
Jiminy Crickets, you've got the MWJ and a galaxy wrecking device called 8th Fleet AND the MWJ can beam that device way into enemy territory to operate with impunity. No brainier.
As I said, 8th Fleet's sorties didn't miss anything, they were clean sweeps. I imagine Theisman & Eloise were livid after the Salamander's raids. "What, Tom? They hit—"
"Yes, Eloise."
"And—"
"Yes."
"And—"
"Yes."
"How did they manage that Tom? I guaranteed certain people that certain things would be safe. How the hell did Harrington manage all of that? And what, with no loss, other than time, of her own? And very little of that. She's always sitting back at home by the time we find out. We've got to do something about her, Tom. I don't operate in a vacuum, you know! And nether do you!"
To stop Honor, Theisman had to snatch Foraker out of her fucking garage, where she was busy tinkering. The Peep Admiralty had to summon a brute force of molycircs to do some serious AI thinking. That project alone kept Shannon busy for a spell.
8th Fleet was frightening, even when she was docked. Fear ran through the nightmares of the Peep population. During Harrington's raids, the population was afraid to travel, which resulted in heat rolling downhill to the Navy, and the Navy's head. Eloise.
The successful outposts that were hit, lost even more revenue from the cancellation of future business transactions and reroutes. Honor wrecked infrastructure in neighboring star systems too. Up and down the "coast." When that happens, everyone has to go out of their way to find civilization.
When your navy is raising so much hell that your enemy's entire focus is on doing something about your efforts. What a vast chunk of initiative you've seized.
When your enemy's constituents are giving your enemy hell politically, making your enemy pull it's hair out, what another chunk of initiative you've seized.
When your enemy's population is scared of the Boogeyman, and a political strip is being torn off your enemy's ass instead of your own, oh what an even bigger chunk of the initiative you've seized.
But when you're keeping the enemy's best strategist out of the warroom doing his bidding, but instead is reacting to your own, oh what an unfair chunk of the initiative you've seized.
When you're keeping your enemy's best tinkerer out of her garage, oh what a smart chunk of the initiative you've seized.
When the Salamander was out on maneuvers, no one in Peep space got any sleep. Wondering what the long list of destruction was going to be. Infrastructure is support, in many areas. Banging up infrastructure in one system, could amount to killing a single "cog" made only in that system.
The rich are living in fear. All travel plans are cancelled. Populations are lost to migration because they no longer feel safe.
8th Fleet is the lynchpin of the Navy and if war really is the continuation of politics by other means, then Eighth Fleet is simply a clear extension of those politics, by other means. Her CO is qualified, she's had many man hours as a politician.
