cthia wrote:IANS Hellbarde was a heavy cruiser of the Imperial Andermani Navy.
Around 1919 PD, the ship was commanded by Kapitän der Sterne Guangfu Gortz. She shadowed the Manticoran heavy cruiser HMS Jessica Epps, conducting a number of subtle provocations against it.
When Jessica Epps ordered a ship falsely transmitting an Andermani transponder code to stop, Hellbarde opened fire. In the following engagement, Hellbarde was pounded into a wreck, while Jessica Epps was destroyed with all hands. (HH10)
Hellbarde had a hard-on for Jessica no doubt. Could that have been the work of the MAlign? Could the MAlign have engineered a war between the then RMN and the Andermani? There'd be one hell of an alternate Honorverse if so. Too late now I think, but what if?
If the wrong officer would have been in Harrington's place, things may not have turned out so well. It was both Honor's level headedness
and the respect most navies have for her that made lemonade out of lemons during that incident.
Unless Haven reconsidered it's Thunderbolt timeline I don't see a prolonged shooting war between Manticore and the Andies. Once Haven kicked that off, and it looked like Manticore might be eliminated as the buffer zone between Haven and the Andies, their Emperor would almost certainly call for an end to the war and offer support to Manticore.
He's
much more concerned about a resurgent Haven potentially expanding his way than he is about Manticore throwing their weight around and preventing his expansion into Silesia.
On the other hand without Honor there the war with Haven would have all kinds of weird variations. No Honor means no Protectors Own at Sidemore. So that attack probably does knock out the fleet base and the detachment of wallers there. (Although if a shooting war had kicked off with the Andies then maybe Manticore diverts more of their fleet there, or else the wallers are out conduction ops so the raid only takes out the base facilities and misses it's real target, the wallers.
But if significant ships
were diverted to Silesia then maybe even with Grayson reinforcement there isn't enough force left to hold Trevor's Star. (Or at least aren't enough to cause that raid to withdraw without fighting; so even if they hold the system Manticore and Grayson might lose a significant number of their modern wall). And right at that moment (assuming the attack on Grendlesbane still succeeds)
Haven is in a better position to make good on their losses than Manticore is.
Like I said,
lots of things change, even if Manicore and the Andies don't get into a prolonged war.
