kzt wrote:Same way the RMN found bolthole.
Well, the circumstances are different. The Manties weren't running around inside Haven, checking on movements of ships, personnel, and materiel.
"Houdini" was essentially a bust -- the Manties already know the gist of it: that several thousand people evacuated Mesa under cover in the last couple(?) of months, presumably bound for the Malign's new homeworld. There's a finite number of ships that left the system during that period, mostly with predetermined flight plans.
Tracking them down will take time and effort, but showing up in a system with a squadron of warships and (politely) demanding copies of records of ships in and out, and of people who switched ships, and interviews with passengers who are still in-system, should produce a lot of not-guaranteed-to-be-accurate data.
One such case is that slaver base the Torchers occupied. They have probably passed on word that there were oddities in the recent shipping traffic. The locals seemed willing to spill anything they thought would be of interest to the occupying force. (It's probably too much to hope for that more ships will show up and get captured.)