Uncompromising Honor, Snippet #3

cthia wrote:

Bewildered wrote:How widespread is knowledge of the Yawata Strike? Is it largely limited to Manticore, or is it universal knowledge? Sorry it's been a while since I read the HH series and I'm a little rusty on the details. The reason I ask is if the SLN start doing scorched-earth attacks against neutrals, what is to prevent Manticore, or a third party, loading up a freighter or two with missiles, jumping to way outside detection range, then launching a heavy bombardment on a ballistic approach? Such a technique would only work on stationary targets but that includes all the infrastructure supporting the SU. True a minor player couldn't hit a major target, but revenge raids and accidental Eridani Edict violations seem plausible in light of a 'rogue' SLN, and post-Yawata universe.

Technically, nothing is stopping them other than their own integrity --morals, scruples and values. (And politics.) Holding steadfast to her integrity has always stood Elizabeth, and Manticore, in good stead. There is absolutely no reason to abandon it now, especially in light of the indomitable tech advantage.

The difference is that the SLN has found out the result of intransigence and consequence and the arrogance of resting on its laurels. Eridani violations may be their only option. The hit and run of cowards with no other recourse.

Although Manticore can deliver tit for tat, they don't have to. The RMN's tech gives them the option of a "scorched space" policy, instead of a scorched Earth.

runsforcelery wrote:

JohnRoth wrote:Yildun does not have any habitable planets. Everything is in orbital habitats. I suspect it might not be all that easy to separate Technodyne facilities from unassociated civilian facilities. Although, since Yildun has a major wormhole junction, I've wondered why it wasn't rolled up with Lacöon 2.

This is an excellent question, and the answer has several parts.

SNIP

runsforcelery wrote:Given Yildun’s position — virtually on the opposite side of the entire League from Manticore — and the Yildun Junction’s relatively short “legs," it actually has lower priority on Lacoön Two’s hit list than a lot of other, single-terminus systems. That is, in terms of its strategic location, Yildun is pretty far down the RMN’s to-do list. And given the fact that Yildun's defenses — especially Cataphract pods, one might safely assume — are probably even heavier than those of the Sol System, coupled with the "logistic" concerns I talk about below, any operation against it would require major fleet support (unlike most of Lacoön Two's wormhole seizures) and be fraught both complications and the potential for (indeed, the virtual certainty of) serious moral and political downsides.

cthia wrote:

Bewildered wrote:How widespread is knowledge of the Yawata Strike? Is it largely limited to Manticore, or is it universal knowledge? Sorry it's been a while since I read the HH series and I'm a little rusty on the details. The reason I ask is if the SLN start doing scorched-earth attacks against neutrals, what is to prevent Manticore, or a third party, loading up a freighter or two with missiles, jumping to way outside detection range, then launching a heavy bombardment on a ballistic approach? Such a technique would only work on stationary targets but that includes all the infrastructure supporting the SU. True a minor player couldn't hit a major target, but revenge raids and accidental Eridani Edict violations seem plausible in light of a 'rogue' SLN, and post-Yawata universe.

Technically, nothing is stopping them other than their own integrity --morals, scruples and values. (And politics.) Holding steadfast to her integrity has always stood Elizabeth, and Manticore, in good stead. There is absolutely no reason to abandon it now, especially in light of the indomitable tech advantage.

The difference is that the SLN has found out the result of intransigence and consequence and the arrogance of resting on its laurels. Eridani violations may be their only option. The hit and run of cowards with no other recourse.

Although Manticore can deliver tit for tat, they don't have to. The RMN's tech gives them the option of a "scorched space" policy, instead of a scorched Earth.

n7axw wrote:My wager is still that Beowulf is successfully defended from attack by SLN, but suffers a bio weapons attack by the Alignment.

Don

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and I eliminated three or four story “strands” that would have been more important than this one in order to control length.

phillies wrote:We are all always grateful for these interesting asides.

We all look forward to future volumes whose working titles might be Granicus, Issus, and Gaugamela (well, they are all wars with Darius, aren't they?)

As another question for a thread that likely vanished. I somehow have the impression that at some point human expansion somewhat ran out of steam, so that we have Core, Shell, and Verge systems, with the boundary within which barbarians are subject to the beneficent rule of the OFS gradually expanding, but we don't see references to efforts to expand outwards. Are these ongoing?

George J. Smith wrote:

phillies wrote:We are all always grateful for these interesting asides.

We all look forward to future volumes whose working titles might be Granicus, Issus, and Gaugamela (well, they are all wars with Darius, aren't they?)

As another question for a thread that likely vanished. I somehow have the impression that at some point human expansion somewhat ran out of steam, so that we have Core, Shell, and Verge systems, with the boundary within which barbarians are subject to the beneficent rule of the OFS gradually expanding, but we don't see references to efforts to expand outwards. Are these ongoing?

I think it was mentioned in one of the "Shadows" books that people emigrated multiple times to get farther away from the SL as it expanded and encompassed the planets they were on.

Joat42 wrote:

Bewildered wrote:How widespread is knowledge of the Yawata Strike? Is it largely limited to Manticore, or is it universal knowledge? Sorry it's been a while since I read the HH series and I'm a little rusty on the details. The reason I ask is if the SLN start doing scorched-earth attacks against neutrals, what is to prevent Manticore, or a third party, loading up a freighter or two with missiles, jumping to way outside detection range, then launching a heavy bombardment on a ballistic approach? Such a technique would only work on stationary targets but that includes all the infrastructure supporting the SU. True a minor player couldn't hit a major target, but revenge raids and accidental Eridani Edict violations seem plausible in light of a 'rogue' SLN, and post-Yawata universe.

I can't see anyone from Manticore or the Grand Alliance doing that, those tactics are light-years removed from what Manticore and the GA stands for.

Also, from a PR standpoint they would create a public backlash of epic proportions and currently the GA doesn't need that kind of PR...

cthia wrote:

Bewildered wrote:How widespread is knowledge of the Yawata Strike? Is it largely limited to Manticore, or is it universal knowledge? Sorry it's been a while since I read the HH series and I'm a little rusty on the details. The reason I ask is if the SLN start doing scorched-earth attacks against neutrals, what is to prevent Manticore, or a third party, loading up a freighter or two with missiles, jumping to way outside detection range, then launching a heavy bombardment on a ballistic approach? Such a technique would only work on stationary targets but that includes all the infrastructure supporting the SU. True a minor player couldn't hit a major target, but revenge raids and accidental Eridani Edict violations seem plausible in light of a 'rogue' SLN, and post-Yawata universe.

Technically, nothing is stopping them other than their own integrity --morals, scruples and values. (And politics.) Holding steadfast to her integrity has always stood Elizabeth, and Manticore, in good stead. There is absolutely no reason to abandon it now, especially in light of the indomitable tech advantage.

The difference is that the SLN has found out the result of intransigence and consequence and the arrogance of resting on its laurels. Eridani violations may be their only option. The hit and run of cowards with no other recourse.

Although Manticore can deliver tit for tat, they don't have to. The RMN's tech gives them the option of a "scorched space" policy, instead of a scorched Earth.