Honorverse favorite one-liners

Hutch wrote:and one from The Short Victorious War, where Admiral Sarnow asks Lt. Cmdr. Webster for his impressions of his new Flag Captain, Honor Harrington:

"In that case, Admiral, all I can say is that she's the best," he said finally. "We had some serious problems when they banished us to Basilisk, and the Captain—well, she dealt with them, Sir, and I never heard her raise her voice once while she did it. You know what Basilisk Station used to be like, and we weren't exactly the best crew anyone ever gave a captain, either. Not when we arrived. But, by God, Admiral, we were when we left!"
.....

"The Captain gets the best out of her people—sometimes more than they ever guessed they could give—and I don't really think it's anything she does. It's who she is, Sir. You trust her. You know she'll never let you down, and when the shit hits the fan, you know she'll get you out of it if anyone can. I'm a com officer, not a tac specialist, but I saw enough in Basilisk to realize how good she really is. I don't know if you've been briefed on just how BuShips butchered our armament, Admiral, but we were so far out of our league it was pitiful. We all knew that from the start, but the Captain took us in anyway. The Peeps smashed us into a wreck, Sir—three-quarters of our people were dead or wounded, but she kept right on coming, and somehow she took them out. I don't know if anyone else could have done it, but she did."

The lieutenant commander's voice was soft, almost inaudible in the quiet cabin, and he stared down at his hands.

"We blamed her for getting us sent to Basilisk when we first arrived. It wasn't her fault, but that didn't change the way we felt, and it showed. But by the time it all broke loose, we would have followed her into Hell. In fact, I guess that's just about what we did . . . and we'd do it again."

Of course, as I mentioned in an earlier post, Lester Tourville says the same the same thing in only four words in War of Honor:

She has the Touch.

"Tell me, Willie," the Prime Minister of Manticore said softly, "why anyone but a madman would want my job?"

Hutch wrote:and one from The Short Victorious War, where Admiral Sarnow asks Lt. Cmdr. Webster for his impressions of his new Flag Captain, Honor Harrington:

"In that case, Admiral, all I can say is that she's the best," he said finally. "We had some serious problems when they banished us to Basilisk, and the Captain—well, she dealt with them, Sir, and I never heard her raise her voice once while she did it. You know what Basilisk Station used to be like, and we weren't exactly the best crew anyone ever gave a captain, either. Not when we arrived. But, by God, Admiral, we were when we left!"
.....

"The Captain gets the best out of her people—sometimes more than they ever guessed they could give—and I don't really think it's anything she does. It's who she is, Sir. You trust her. You know she'll never let you down, and when the shit hits the fan, you know she'll get you out of it if anyone can. I'm a com officer, not a tac specialist, but I saw enough in Basilisk to realize how good she really is. I don't know if you've been briefed on just how BuShips butchered our armament, Admiral, but we were so far out of our league it was pitiful. We all knew that from the start, but the Captain took us in anyway. The Peeps smashed us into a wreck, Sir—three-quarters of our people were dead or wounded, but she kept right on coming, and somehow she took them out. I don't know if anyone else could have done it, but she did."

The lieutenant commander's voice was soft, almost inaudible in the quiet cabin, and he stared down at his hands.

"We blamed her for getting us sent to Basilisk when we first arrived. It wasn't her fault, but that didn't change the way we felt, and it showed. But by the time it all broke loose, we would have followed her into Hell. In fact, I guess that's just about what we did . . . and we'd do it again."

Of course, as I mentioned in an earlier post, Lester Tourville says the same the same thing in only four words in War of Honor:

She has the Touch.

“Each of those LACs has more missile defense capability than one of your Rampart-class or War Harvest-class destroyers,” she told him. “In fact, they probably have more antimissile capability than one of your cruisers.

And at this moment there are two thousand of them deployed with each of my forces. Which doesn’t even consider what our onboard defenses and EW will do to your birds.” She shook her head. “Your fire isn’t getting through my defenses, Admiral. Not enough of it to do you one bit of good.”

Amaroq wrote:How about this wham line from MoH:

Gamma line or no, there was no way he could have equaled the performance of an alpha line like the O'Hanrahan genotype

That was a bit of an "Oh, crap" moment for me when I realized how deeply the MA has some of their sleepers. Although until CoG I didn't know if Audrey O'Hanrahan knew she was a Mesan "spy" or not.

cthia wrote:

“Each of those LACs has more missile defense capability than one of your Rampart-class or War Harvest-class destroyers,” she told him. “In fact, they probably have more antimissile capability than one of your cruisers.

I had no idea that LACs had that much anti-missile capability.
How can that be so? I mean, as much anti-missile capability as a cruiser? I know we're talking a Solarian cruiser but still. Isn't there a considerable size differential? What am I missing here...again?

MaxxQ wrote:
What you're missing is "quality". Manty LACs with current Manty CM tech (as well as any ECM that the LACs themselves might be able to bring to bear) is far ahead of SLN missile tech. Sure, the DDs she mentioned might have more in quantity, but overall, they are less effective than RMN CMs. Also, don't forget the many point defense clusters that the LACs have as well.

Notice she didn't say that RMN LACs have a higher "quantity" of CMs, just that the *capabilities* of her LACs are better than those SLN destroyers or cruisers.

Quantity may have a quality all its own, but sometimes, quality is better no matter how big the quantity differential is.

There were over four hundred superdreadnoughts on his plot, and if they were even half as capable as Harrington had described, they were more than enough to cut through every active unit of Battle Fleet like a laser through ice cubes.

cthia wrote:Although I can't remember if LACs were available during Honor of The Queen.

cthia wrote:What?
A Solarian Admiral actually admitting how outclassed they are?
Filareta essentially admitted that every single active ship in Battle Fleet's order of battle was useless junk...much less his present command.

Ouch!

Too bad Filareta had to die, I actually like him. He has a brain.