SWM wrote:Kizarvexis wrote:I had an evil thought. The Republic of Mannerheim has one of the larger SDFs. RoM is a part of the MAlign. What if Detweiler sent the RMN (Rep. of Mannerheim Navy) to secure the MESA system due to the undeclared terrorist war by the Audubon Ballroom. The RMN convinces the Mesan government to declare a cease fire while coming into orbit or else. Since interstellar law has that once a fleet holds the orbitals, the planet is required to surrender or suffer KEW strikes. The Mesan government has first hand experience with those, so surrenders. Then the RMN can make sure that nothing got left behind while securing the evidence of the atrocities of the Ballroom.
SharkHunter wrote:Commented on another thread, but a) how is the Mannerheim SDF supposed to have known in time to arrive (travel time to/from besides the wormholes), and b)if it was the MSDF, why would General Drescher ask for Palane to offer a cease fire? vs. Helen Zilwicki and Michael Oversteegen who have both met Thandi and have a proprietary reason for keeping her alive? aka Berry Zilwicki, Queen of Torch.
Bottom line for me: 10th Fleet captured Mesa.
Um, Mesa knew that Palane, Zilwicki, and Cachat were inside the tower. The word had spread all through the Seccie sectors, and the information had also gotten to the Mesan Government. The rumor that the great Palane, who had a huge reputation among the slaves and seccies, was actually on Mesa fighting for them was huge news. In fact, the rebels used her reputation to boost the morale of the rebel forces and attract more seccie sectors into rebellion. Drescher did not get the information from whoever just came into the system--the Mesan government had known for weeks.
Let's say I buy that Mesa for whatever reason got word to the MSDF and said "oh my gosh, those Torchese under Palane and the Ballroom are bombing our planet, come help us! and gee whiz, here they come to save the day! still finding Mesans in charge and essentially in the final/nearly mop up stages against ONE tower. Why bother to stop Drescher's forces from winning the battle before they intervene?
Compare that to her likely response if it's Henke coming as hell's avenging angels to collect on the Yawata Strike dead. AKA drop wedges, lay down weapons, and tell her adversaries (Palane, etc.) that the "fight is over and we're pulling back", and briefly announcing why.
And finally, if you're David and Eric, aka authorial types, what better time to say "to be continued..."