Battle of Spindle Aftermath

MAD-4A wrote:

tonyz wrote:The nano needs a trigger condition to go off, and (to cover their tracks) a plausible reason for whatever it is to happen. I don't think they're confident enough they can predict everything beforehand so the situation is right for them to pull the trigger on command, and it's too uncertain waiting for an environmental cue...

Anything can be a trigger – with 11th fleet it was when Filareta ordered “strike the wedge” & Daniels activated. For Crandal it could have been the same – she says “strike the wedge” & Yoink-POW!
Arnold Giancola was just flying threw the right area when he "activated". considering what happened to Daniels I think the Manty experts were a little short on its capabilities.

Correction: Giancola was killed in a gen-you-wine aircar accident. Grosclaude was the one who was killed by way of nano-assassins forcing him to fly into a cliff face at Mach 1.

MaxxQ wrote:Giancola/Grosclaude

oh - got them mixed up - they both start with a G

Eagleeye wrote:My 2 cents point to that FF-guy, Hago Shavarshyan, because he is the least likely candidate But, otoh, the ... mutual dislike between BF and FF, combined with his boxseat experience of how Crandall act, could be reason enough - even without MAlign influence - to cross that particular limit.

kenl511 wrote:Bautista, definitely Pepe Bautista. Paid by MA'lign.

I would really like that. I doubt it, but I really like it.

MAD-4A wrote:

tonyz wrote:The nano needs a trigger condition to go off, and (to cover their tracks) a plausible reason for whatever it is to happen. I don't think they're confident enough they can predict everything beforehand so the situation is right for them to pull the trigger on command, and it's too uncertain waiting for an environmental cue...

Anything can be a trigger – with 11th fleet it was when Filareta ordered “strike the wedge” & Daniels activated. For Crandal it could have been the same – she says “strike the wedge” & Yoink-POW!
Arnold Giancola was just flying threw the right area when he "activated". considering what happened to Daniels I think the Manty experts were a little short on its capabilities.

Heck, they could have had an agent on board as a lower enlisted, and say "pineapple horse lawnmower" to trigger her when she needed to go.

Borealis wrote:All right, I was re-reading Mission of Honor and I noticed something that caught me as odd. In Chapter 26, Queen Elizabeth, Willie, Hamish, Langtry, Givens, Caparelli, and perhaps a few others were discussing the fallout of Crandall's defeat when they bring up Crandall's 'apparent' suicide.

You forget that she could have suicided by remote control. Programmed to do so if she faced the risk of ending up in Manty hands.



*****

On the other hand, the SLN may routinely have custom pulsers for senior officers (paid for out of personal funds, of course ^_^). So, Crandell's pulser might be very identifiable.

I expect that to be quite likely.

Tenshinai wrote:

Borealis wrote:All right, I was re-reading Mission of Honor and I noticed something that caught me as odd. In Chapter 26, Queen Elizabeth, Willie, Hamish, Langtry, Givens, Caparelli, and perhaps a few others were discussing the fallout of Crandall's defeat when they bring up Crandall's 'apparent' suicide.

You forget that she could have suicided by remote control. Programmed to do so if she faced the risk of ending up in Manty hands.

The question remains, why - and, for that matter, how - did she shoot herself in the back of the head?

MAD-4A wrote:Anything can be a trigger – with 11th fleet it was when Filareta ordered “strike the wedge” & Daniels activated. For Crandal it could have been the same – she says “strike the wedge” & Yoink-POW!
Arnold Giancola was just flying threw the right area when he "activated". considering what happened to Daniels I think the Manty experts were a little short on its capabilities.

Holy $#&% !!! (Spoiler Alert – for aRT) – Rajampet – see!

Dafmeister wrote:The question remains, why - and, for that matter, how - did she shoot herself in the back of the head?

Are we sure it was in the back & not out the back?

It's an odd little mystery.
* Suicide: Unlikely, because of the geometry.
* Programmed assassination: Unlikely, because nobody admits to seeing it. Why would they lie if they saw it? How likely is it that Crandall happened to be alone with the zombie when it got triggered?
* Assassination by MAlign agent who knows the expected outcome of the battle. Unlikely he'd have been on board the flagship, because while they're willing to kill without compunction, I don't think we've seen much inclination toward self-sacrifice for the cause.
* Assassination by MAlign agent who's not in the know. Unlikely, because at that moment he'd have more pressing concerns, like getting off the damned ship! Plus, he might have a rather dimmer view of his employers.
* Fragging by subordinate. It seems so ... unprofessional ... for one admiral to shoot another. It's not like any of them was in a position to say "I told you so!" Even the ones with qualms about the ultimate cost of winning a war against the Manties had expected to win this battle handily. They were all shocked to find how outgunned they were.

Maybe an interrogation team with a treecat will take an interest?

Dafmeister wrote:
The question remains, why - and, for that matter, how - did she shoot herself in the back of the head?

Not really. It happens in the real world so why not in fiction.

It only becomes impossible for someone to do on their own if the gun is too long. Something i very much doubt in this case.