Call to Vengeance Ramblings SPOILERS

HungryKing wrote:I have been toying with posting this, but does anyone else think that there is a faint possibility Travis is going to live to see Ad Astra commission, or even talk to Edward Saganami? I even have this bizarre idea that Saganami's class is going to receive a 'First View', delivered by Travis as the last living officer who was present at the Battle of Manticore, and then watch the commissioning of Ad Astra and that somehow Travis and Saganami take the same shuttle back to Manticore and that Travis dies right before the shuttle enters thick atmosphere.

Bluesqueak wrote:Incidentally, we know that by Honor's time, Michelle Henke is considered fifth in line even though her non-Winton parent was noble.

So I'd guess that Elizabeth's constitutional amendment is going to make it clear that the requirement to marry a commoner applies only to the Crown Prince(ss). And that the line of succession is through the Winton line, no matter who they marry.

If you inherit without ever having been Crown Prince(ss), you were never under the requirement to marry a commoner.

n7axw wrote:Hi Lyonheart,

It's good to see you post. Your notion of a trip to Barca is a good one. I don't know whether or not the info they need can be pried loose. Manticore is still pretty short handed to make forceful arguements. I'm stll speculating that the info will be a recoverable file from the Volsung's database.

The thing that gave Breakwater's arguements so much punch is that Manticore is still short handed... not just militarily but all the way around. Terminating the subsidized immigration program seems to be a mistake with less than 5 million people in the entire system.

Don

-

saber964 wrote:

HungryKing wrote:I have been toying with posting this, but does anyone else think that there is a faint possibility Travis is going to live to see Ad Astra commission, or even talk to Edward Saganami? I even have this bizarre idea that Saganami's class is going to receive a 'First View', delivered by Travis as the last living officer who was present at the Battle of Manticore, and then watch the commissioning of Ad Astra and that somehow Travis and Saganami take the same shuttle back to Manticore and that Travis dies right before the shuttle enters thick atmosphere.

Doubtful on meeting Edward Saganami. Nagasaki would've been a relative nobody at the time. As to the "Last View" that didn't start until a few years after Saganami's death in the 1660's PD, so Travis would be pushing 130 years.

Hornblower wrote:Can Manticore produce missiles out of their own capacities or do they have to import compoments? For new ships they need to import impellers and fusion reactors.

It is obvious that to increase their defence capacities more missiles are needed. A higher ship yard capacity would also be good to increase the repair speed of damaged units.

Bluesqueak wrote:

Hornblower wrote:Can Manticore produce missiles out of their own capacities or do they have to import compoments? For new ships they need to import impellers and fusion reactors.

It is obvious that to increase their defence capacities more missiles are needed. A higher ship yard capacity would also be good to increase the repair speed of damaged units.

I think not. There was that scene where the XO and TO had to agree to use a missile, because the bloody things are so expensive.

Manticore's problem at this stage is the old 'we can do anything, but we can't do everything. Breakwater's been arguing for building up the domestic economy, but is sufficiently short-sighted that he doesn't realise that there are people out there who're willing to take everything Manticore has.

Essentially, he's the sort of person who does'nt have house insurance because he has nothing worth stealing - and has never figured up the cost of replacing the little he's got.

At the moment, Manticore has to balance the long term cost, in warm bodies and money, of setting up a full scale shipbuilding facility, and/or a missile building facility - AGAINST the equally long term problem that those bodies and money will probably have to be taken away from other, important, domestic economy activities. In practice, economies often decide to buy in the military hardware, because they can spare the money, but not the warm bodies.

What we as readers know is that they're sitting on a goldfield, never mind a goldmine. Defending that glittering prize will have to be a priority, and they'll need to make shipbuilding and weapons building part of their defence. But nobody on Manticore knows that yet. All they know is that for some reason, somebody is spending a LOT of money on destroying them.

I reckon they'll start prioritising building impellers the moment they find out Axelrod is behind this. They can't leave a vital shipbuilding component to be built by League transtellars, if one of those League transtellars has plans to take them out. That moves it beyond problems of domestic economics into problems of survival.

Bluesqueak wrote:

Hornblower wrote:Can

I think not. There was that scene where the XO and TO had to agree to use a missile, because the bloody things are so expensive.

Manticore's problem at this stage is the old 'we can do anything, but we can't do everything. Breakwater's been arguing for building up the domestic economy, but is sufficiently short-sighted that he doesn't realise that there are people out there who're willing to take everything Manticore has.

Essentially, he's the sort of person who does'nt have house insurance because he has nothing worth stealing - and has never figured up the cost of replacing the little he's got.

At the moment, Manticore has to balance the long term cost, in warm bodies and money, of setting up a full scale shipbuilding facility, and/or a missile building facility - AGAINST the equally long term problem that those bodies and money will probably have to be taken away from other, important, domestic economy activities. In practice, economies often decide to buy in the military hardware, because they can spare the money, but not the warm bodies.

What we as readers know is that they're sitting on a goldfield, never mind a goldmine. Defending that glittering prize will have to be a priority, and they'll need to make shipbuilding and weapons building part of their defence. But nobody on Manticore knows that yet. All they know is that for some reason, somebody is spending a LOT of money on destroying them.

I reckon they'll start prioritising building impellers the moment they find out Axelrod is behind this. They can't leave a vital shipbuilding component to be built by League transtellars, if one of those League transtellars has plans to take them out. That moves it beyond problems of domestic economics into problems of survival.

Breakwater may well believe the stuff he's been spouting. It does make sense in a tunnel vision sort of way. But note how his tune changes after the Axelrod attack. He's promoting the same ends, but with different rationale.

What is really motivating Breakwater is his empire building.

Don

-