cthia wrote:Interesting posts, all of you. I'm just not convinced the MWJ affects the negative hemisphere the same. Consider Newton's law of Universal Gravitation . . .
Forget "hemisphere."
The Junction is a volume of space one light-second in radius in which there exist multiple inbound and outbound lanes. Those lanes are cylindrical in nature and very limited in height. Outside of those lanes, space seems to be normal exactly as outside the volume of the Junction. The only reason it's different from anywhere else in deep space is the Resonance Zone and the fact that some type of gravitic sensor can tell that the Junction is there at all. Moreover, there has been no indication that electromagnetic radiation is affected at all. For all we know, a beam of light going straight down the departure lane passes through the wormhole point and continues on unaffected.
David may still contradict us and say that there are "false lanes" or other types of gravitational anomalies. He may also tell us that some EM radiation is affected in some ways.
He can't say that you can't fire from inside a lane out or outside in, since we know that has been done. So at least graser beams coming and going through the sides of the lane cylinder continue unaffected.
Finally, on hemisphere: there's no indication whatsoever that the departure or arrival lanes are oriented towards the Manticore-A system. They could be all over the place and any course corrections required to reorient would take a handful of seconds for a ship under impellers, so they wouldn't be worthy of notice in the books.
That particular relationship is going to exist more strongly between the MWJ and the planet, the two most massive objects in the system. The direction of grav eddys should extend toward the "positive" hemisphere, intuitively. Albeit, I'll certainly agree that "intuitively" isn't necessarily written in stone.
If by "planet" you mean "star," sure. But at 7 light-hours out, even the gravitational influence of a G0 star is very diminished (the escape velocity there is a mere 6 km/s, less than that of the surface of Earth and Venus, just over that of Mars). More importantly, we don't know what the mass of the WH is. There has never been any indication in any of the books of what that might be, or even if it has a mass. In fact, given that ships, forts, warehouses, and all sorts of other construction park in the vicinity of the wormholes, if they have any mass at all, they would be very small indeed.
Another aspect worthy of consideration is the fact that warships which are exiting from the junction are automatically ejected from the junction on a bearing in the positive hemisphere on a vector towards the planet. IINM, warships cannot control their bearing prior to exit. As far as I know, warships cannot exit the junction on a negative bearing facing ships hypering in from the negative hemisphere? Admittedly, that could simply be an ability the author hasn't yet had cause to share. My guess tho, would be no. The ability does not exist. The MWJ regurgitates ships in the direction of the planet.
We do not know that they are vectored towards the inner system. See above.
All of that causes me to believe the concentrated rubber band of dangerous gravity is stretched toward the planet, and it - and it's effect - is mostly directional. Leaving ships at the "back door" operating under a different set of "parameters." Which might not affect the LDs to the same degree.
Even if you're right and the distribution of legitimate traffic is hemispherically lopsided, the forts wouldn't be. The forts exist to protect mostly against attack from hyper, not via the wormholes. Therefore, it stands to reason that they would be arranged to protect as much as possible all venues of attack. There's no reason to expect the enemy to come from a particular direction in space.
Rule #1 of Space Warfare: the enemy gets a vote.
The attacking stealth ships would indeed seek to infiltrate using the least dense path possible, to maximise its own chances of remaining undetected. No doubt about that. And I suppose multiple such paths exist, even in the case of randomly-oriented departure and arrival lanes. So if there is a path through which the LD has a higher chance of remaining undetected, I expect it will try to take it.
The problem is that the RMN knows that too. So it stands to reason that the RMN and ACS will also seed those paths with buoys blaring sensors as well as Ghost Rider recon drones. In fact, the RMN may even leave stealth mines of their own there. Rule #1 above applies in reverse too: the RMN gets a vote.
Jonathan answered one of my pending questions of whether the enemy can hyper in-system on a bearing directly towards the MWJ from the negative hemisphere. I know ordinarily there shouldn't be anything to prevent this except the limitations of the Resonance Zone (RZ)? But - and probably found only in my warped brain - I would think hypering in on that vector would only be possible if a warship has traveled that route before. I didn't think a ship could find its ass in hyper if its ass hasn't traveled that route before. And I wouldn't think that the MBS would be too quick to share that astrogation data. If so, that data would surely be classified.
Hyper travel is done via a very precise inertial navigation system. So you can tell where you're arriving and our attitude relative to the reference point.
Merchant ships don't have as good a hyperlog as warships, so they drop out of hyper much farther out. After that, they manoeuvre to the outbound lanes or to the warehouses as needed. It isn't stated in the books, but I've always assumed that ships usually emerge in the direct line between source and destination. I think it is in one of the Manticore Ascendant books that a freighter is described as having a vector to or from the Solarian League. If this is correct, then ships should emerge in the vicinity of the Junction in all directions, with no preference whatsoever. In turn, that means neither the ACS nor the RMN have a reason to dedicate more resources to one direction over another.
To be clear, I'm not saying the enemy cannot emerge from hyper in the negative hemisphere. But not on a perfect line straight up the X-axis or, for that matter, anywhere in immediate contention of the junction. And if my logic is correct, already hamstrung sensors won't be trained on certain areas.
The enemy is not going to emerge from hyper. There's no stealth in doing that, since the transition itself is a very bright source. Every sensor in the forts and recon drones is going to pick you up and retain a lock for the duration of your stay.
If LDs are going to attack anywhere in the Manticore Binary System, they will have to emerge 6 light-months out and spend 8 months at 0.8c coming, in order to perform a one-pass attack.