Has the Mesan Alignment already lost?

dreamrider wrote:***Snip***

2) Jake McBryde, and his girlfriend, cut off from the stability of the society they have known, forced to face the real brutality of the culture they have lived in, and with the seeds of doubt planted by McBryde's brother, are at large in the galaxy, with a busted transit plan. They are most probably going to arrive as unwitting but increasingly restive, even desperately unwilling supercargo on a slaver making a route call at...Parmley Station. Even if the ship is not taken down during the port call (due to lack of slaves in evidence), the pair will likely jump ship there. And Jake McBryde, plus his new girlfriend, unlike Herlander Simoes, DOES know most of the layers that will blown the MAlign's future operations wide open. I don't think he knows the location of Darius, and he may not know the LOCATION of the Twins or of Felix, and I don't think he knows all about the Renaissance Factor, especially not the member states, but I think they know, between them, the NATURE of the Twins system, amd the fact that there IS a wormhole route to a secret base system, and that Verdant Vista was wrapped up in the MAlign's deeper plans. That will be enough to set the GA looking in the right ways, in the right directions.

***Snip***

Minor correction.

Zachariah McBryde is on the loose as of Cauldron of Ghosts. Jack McBryde was vaporized in Torch of Freedom.

But are Zakhariah & "girlfriend" loose?

Admittedly they don't have their GAUL minder to bother them, but the captain of the ship is still heading for the original destination, it is pure speculation that the ship may call at Parmely Station.

As for the "girlfriend", she is an analyst specialising in ships and their capabilities, if by chance the two of them are picked up by the GA, what will they be able to glean from her about the Sharks & Detweilers?


T&R
GJS

Edited for spelling error (well at least one of them)

George J. Smith wrote:To paraphrase an old cliché,

Those who fight and run away live to fight another day,
or in the case of the MAlign another decade, I think the Malign will go to ground again for a long time so that they can finish building their navy and get themselves back to their previous timetable, they know the SL is going to break up which is what they wanted in the first place, because of the GA they know they can't presently win militarily so they will scuttle back under their rocks and wait for the dust to clear before venturing out again.

GJS

I think Albrect is going to attempt to drive the plan forward, continuing to make adjustments on the fly and try to force the outcome.

That is what has been happening. Now that people are activly looking for the Alignment it is going to be much harder to hide. The same line of thought and investigation that brought Anton and Victor to their questions (and actions) about Mesa are going to push the search into new directions. The Alignment is going to succeed in the break-up of the SL but will probably find that they can't control it to the extent they need to make the RF the force and focus they planned.

We, the readers, know that the three major powers in the Haven Quadrant (Haven, Manticore and Andermani) are now so outside the ability of the Alignment to control that the probable only way to fix that will be to run another strike - except vastly larger- with the new Alignment weapons systems. Will the Alignment be both able and willing to wait until they build and train the force they need?

We have seen the Maya/Erwhon connection and there are hints that other OFS people might just jump at the chance to create their own independent states as the wheels fall off the SL.

What we have NOT seen is what else is going on in the areas outside the League beyond the Haven Quadrant (and places like Talbot) We don't know if the Alignment has plans running for variations of the RF on smaller scales to divert all sorts of soon-to-interested parties into the Balkanization of all those Verge and beyond areas. The RF is likely to have it's hands full creating it's Sucessor State to the League.

Albrect is presently focused on 1) Houdini, 2) Manticore/Haven as a major problem, 3) the Aldermani as a rising problem, 4) dealing with Beowulf. What is he (and his "sons") not looking at that can come back and bite them? The group forming in the SLN intelegence community could be a major problem. It is also quite possible that some of the existing SL member worlds could put a serious dent in the formation of the RF by crippling if not taking over one or more RF system in the chaos of the fall of the SL.

We shall see.

Vince wrote:Minor correction.

Zachariah McBryde is on the loose as of Cauldron of Ghosts. Jack McBryde was vaporized in Torch of Freedom.

Thanks, Vince. I was working without access to the appropriate books to check the first name. Thought it was Jack and Jacob.

dr

George J. Smith wrote:But are Zakhariah & "girlfriend" loose?

Admittedly they don't have their GAUL minder to bother them, but the captain of the ship is still heading for the original destination, it is pure speculation that the ship may call at Parmely Station.

As for the "girlfriend", she is an analyst specialising in ships and their capabilities, if by chance the two of them are picked up by the GA, what will they be able to glean from her about the Sharks & Detweilers?


T&R
GJS

Edited for spelling error (well at least one of them)

Yes, you have the story right. Yes, it is "pure speculation."

But... it is good speculation. Getting rid of the gaul sets the stage for something...what? The ship to be taken rather than scuttled which would have happened had the gaul been on board... Intercepted in deep space by RTN... Stopped at Parmley station... What?


Good story telling, anyway.

Don

I'm struck by the similarities between Mesa and Jackson's Whole in Lois Bujold's Barrayar universe. Corporate rule, pretty much anything goes that doesn't affect profits.
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Major Strasser has been shot! Round up the usual suspects!

Imaginos1892 wrote:I'm struck by the similarities between Mesa and Jackson's Whole in Lois Bujold's Barrayar universe. Corporate rule, pretty much anything goes that doesn't affect profits.
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Major Strasser has been shot! Round up the usual suspects!

Oh, Mesa was/is wa-a-ay more centralized and controlled than Jackson's Whole. Lets face it - the Somali warlords and pirates are more centralized and cooperative than the great Houses of Jackson's Whole.

dreamrider

No, they have three things going for them:

1. Nobody knows where Darius is.
2. Nobody knows about the Renaissance Factor. If the RF can come into being successfully and negotiate an accord with the GA, then their long-term plan has a chance of success.
3. The Leonard Detweilers. All we know is that they are spider-drive ships. They're probably another level beyond the Sharks, and genuinely capable of launching effective sneak attacks against GA warships.

Meshakhad wrote:No, they have three things going for them:

1. Nobody knows where Darius is.
2. Nobody knows about the Renaissance Factor. If the RF can come into being successfully and negotiate an accord with the GA, then their long-term plan has a chance of success.
3. The Leonard Detweilers. All we know is that they are spider-drive ships. They're probably another level beyond the Sharks, and genuinely capable of launching effective sneak attacks against GA warships.

1. Nobody outside of the Malign knows about, or what the Malign have at, Darius either, so would not know to go looking for it.


T&R
GJS

George J. Smith wrote:

Meshakhad wrote:No, they have three things going for them:

1. Nobody knows where Darius is.
2. Nobody knows about the Renaissance Factor. If the RF can come into being successfully and negotiate an accord with the GA, then their long-term plan has a chance of success.
3. The Leonard Detweilers. All we know is that they are spider-drive ships. They're probably another level beyond the Sharks, and genuinely capable of launching effective sneak attacks against GA warships.

1. Nobody outside of the Malign knows about, or what the Malign have at, Darius either, so would not know to go looking for it.


T&R
GJS

They must have some kind of bolthole (an unknown system where the can build their ships). The force of Oyster Bay wasn't built at Mesa