Honorverse favorite one-liners

MaxxQ wrote: ... I guess I forgot about the more unsavory aspects of Filareta. I was only thinking about how he was going to actually use the brains he was born with.

And that's what made Filareta the least bit interesting to me. He was the first BF commander I recall with the brains to consider "what if" the stories had some truth to them. A day late and a dollar short, but my credulity felt stretched along the way to this.

That and his special perversion made him fascinatingly loathsome to me, rather than just annoyingly stupid and not in control of their emotions like other commanders. A real cad.

Most of you know how I've been pining away from a lack of an SLN all-in response. Well, as some of you were so kind to point out to me, ART delivers...and some, on both sides of the Beowulf terminus. Please forgive my indulgence forumites, but I'm as happy as a fly on stink, y'all said I would be!

To RFC, a toast...CHEERS! and a broken shot glass!

“I don’t think you want to do this, Fleet Admiral,” Holmon-Sanders said, and smiled thinly. “I really don’t think you want to do this.”

“Get out of my way now, Admiral, or I will by God blow every one of your fucking ships out of space!”

“Vice Admiral Alice Truman, Royal Manticoran Navy,” she identified herself coldly. “You might want to reconsider your belligerence, Fleet Admiral Tsang.”

“Surely not even the SLN was stupid enough to think we couldn’t foresee the possibility of something like this once we figured out Filareta was coming! Or perhaps you really thought we couldn’t. Especially if you judged us by your own service’s demonstrated levels of competence.”

You think the rest of the League’s members systems are going to side with Beowulf? After Beowulf’s actively connived to help you ambush a Solarian task force in Solarian space?!”

“Your ability to interpret a tactical situation would appear to be every bit as good as Josef Byng’s and Sandra Crandall’s, Admiral,” Truman observed with icy disdain. “If we’d wanted to ‘ambush’ you, you’d be as dead as they are by now. Your reconnaissance provisions were so pathetic that the first thing you would have known about our presence would’ve been the impeller signatures of incoming missiles!

“As Admiral Truman says, we don’t want to kill anyone who doesn’t have to die. But if you’re still prepared to fight your way through this terminus, Fleet Admiral Tsang, then you just bring it on.”

Art is simply...well...art!


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cthia wrote:

akira.taylor wrote:
True. As I recall, it was something "sick" with children. It was easy to miss, as I recall (just the one mention), and he is about the most competent SLN officer we've seen.

But really deserved to die, given his habits.

That is sick! And he got his just dessert!!
Don't know how I missed that reference.
Although I am still reading ART, no one has fired a shot yet...almost there; I'm stretching it out, although I probably have already missed that nuance.

No excuses, its just that...well...its a small world but a huge universe and it was so nice to actually come across a competent Solly who probably even owns a gerbil.

There are a few instances where it is referred to. One in MoH:

He was also well known for a tendency to party hard when the opportunity came his way, and among those who knew him particularly well there were rumors that he enjoyed certain pleasures even the most jaded Solly might call "esoteric."

And a few in ART:

He knew all about his own reputation as a hard-partying fellow, and he knew there were rumors about certain other of his more…esoteric tastes. As far as he knew, though, no one knew about his most deeply hidden cravings. No one, at least, but his “friends” at Manpower, who’d long since fallen into the habit of providing for those cravings. Those same “friends” had eased his way in other fashions, as well, and he’d always known that someday they’d want payback. But he’d been all right with that; it was the way the system worked, even if his particular set of incentives would have been regarded as beyond the pale even by jaded Solarian standards.

Some background digging by al-Fanudahi's friend...

“Neither of them was any great prize, and some of the things we found out about Filareta are enough to make your stomach crawl"

There's even a small one when Honor is pondering how her ambush might work:

...despite some hints in ONI’s dossier about objectionable personal habits...

The real damning one is by Admiral Rajampet:

And Filareta—! If that taste of his for sick games with little girls and boys had ever made it to the public eye, he—or his career, at least—would’ve been dead, even in the League.

Rajampet's is easy to miss because it's just a casual reference during a longer thought monologue.

Dca wrote:

MaxxQ wrote: ... I guess I forgot about the more unsavory aspects of Filareta. I was only thinking about how he was going to actually use the brains he was born with.

And that's what made Filareta the least bit interesting to me. He was the first BF commander I recall with the brains to consider "what if" the stories had some truth to them. A day late and a dollar short, but my credulity felt stretched along the way to this.

That and his special perversion made him fascinatingly loathsome to me, rather than just annoyingly stupid and not in control of their emotions like other commanders. A real cad.

Probably worth noting is that Filareta was considered by his peers to be a below-average fleet commander, better than Crandall but still less than impessive. Which is another one of those hints that Manticore hasn't been merely kicking around the SLN's 'B' team, they've been kicking around the SLN's equivalents of Elvis Santino.

Amaroq wrote:
Rajampet's is easy to miss because it's just a casual reference during a longer thought monologue.

The real damning one is by Admiral Rajampet:

And Filareta—! If that taste of his for sick games with little girls and boys had ever made it to the public eye, he—or his career, at least—would’ve been dead, even in the League.

This is the particular reference that somehow managed to escape me. It is specific. The other references I always assumed regarded his affinity for Mesan's genetic sex slaves.

That is sick in itself mind you, because IMHO it amounts to rape. (IMHO, its not like they had a choice)

Regarding his affinity for kids...laser heads were too decent a demise for him.

And Amaroq, thanks for the research!

drothgery wrote:Probably worth noting is that Filareta was considered by his peers to be a below-average fleet commander, better than Crandall but still less than impessive. Which is another one of those hints that Manticore hasn't been merely kicking around the SLN's 'B' team, they've been kicking around the SLN's equivalents of Elvis Santino.

This is worth noting, and I'm pleased that you did, although with mixed feelings, because ART satisfied my wish for an SLN all-in response.

How can we consider, that the SLN would consider, this to be their definitive response if they merely sent the equivalence of their Elvis Santinos...rather their own versions of Theisman, Giscard, Tourville, Truman, Henke and White Haven? (the Salamander was intentionally left out because an Honorverse is only big enough for one.)

How many times has Haven sent out COs from their A-list on an A-list mission? That's how we lost Giscard. (sorry rose)

And how many times was the Salamander herself sent out by Manticore, and not always with the best resources?

Thus, your astute observation Drothgery, makes me think the SLN may yet make at least one more attempt, bringing their A-listers off the bench.
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drothgery wrote: <snip> Probably worth noting is that Filareta was considered by his peers to be a below-average fleet commander, better than Crandall but still less than impessive. Which is another one of those hints that Manticore hasn't been merely kicking around the SLN's 'B' team, they've been kicking around the SLN's equivalents of Elvis Santino.

Good point, I'd missed his relative standing in the reputation hierarchy. I understand that the MAlign had selected Byng and Crandall for their dumb-projectile aimability, but I didn't like how utterly idiotic they (and Rajampet) made the whole SLN command staff look. Except for people like Thurston, who was damned by his situation, and Roszak, who with Barregos chose not to be.

I agree with Cthia, ART made me feel better in a lot of ways.

cthia wrote:Thus, your observation drothgery, makes me think the SLN may yet make at least one more attempt, bringing their A-listers off the bench.

The only place that I can see that kind of attempt would be to "stabilize" Beowulf. I certainly hope they would bring in an A-lister for that. They'll need it.

Dca wrote:

cthia wrote:Thus, your observation drothgery, makes me think the SLN may yet make at least one more attempt, bringing their A-listers off the bench.

The only place that I can see that kind of attempt would be to "stabilize" Beowulf. I certainly hope they would bring in an A-lister for that. They'll need it.

Somehow, I can't see how they would have become A-listers without a certain aversion for sausage grinders!

cthia wrote:

Dca wrote:The only place that I can see that kind of attempt would be to "stabilize" Beowulf. I certainly hope they would bring in an A-lister for that. They'll need it.

Somehow, I can't see how they would have become A-listers without a certain aversion for sausage grinders!

Yeh, I'd expect any A-lister to ... negotiate very carefully before accepting such an assignment, even if they end up having to grit their teeth, salute, and say, "Yes, sir." And then follow up with nonzero intel collection/analysis, and approach with something more rational than Filareta's both-feet-first maneuver.

I'm looking forward to it, even though it sounds a long way off.