Assumptions:
1) All ponderings, and musing is being based on MAlign, Solarian League has been split apart into Maya style blocks, and peace (more or less) has returned.
2) That no notable merchant-types have died between now and the mystical point in time of point 1
3) the tech imbalance between military forces have roughly equalized once again. Or at the very least, the open balance of ships that are known are equals.
4) Merchants will continue acting as we're generally aware they do currently, which hasn't seemed to change at all in the 20ish years of the Havenite War(s).
5) That the Junction continues to operate as has been, and that we don't suddenly learn it's actually possible to go from Terminus directly to another Terminus, bypassing the Junction(s) they connect to.
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Assumptions being listed, does anyone else picture Hauptman deciding to go for another edge in his trading and souping up his freighters, ala Quarn from the Fury-verse?
At the minimum, I see him producing at least a few (dozen) sets of ships that include the following "military-grade" tech:
-hyper generators plus particle shielding
-compensators (higher top speeds and acceleration)
And I really only see him maintaining these military-ish freighters for a short time. Basically he'd only build and maintain them, early on... while everyone's figuring out new trade routes as a way to lock-into new routes.
"Say... you want X cargo(s) delivered to you in System Y? Well, it just so happens, I have some high-speed bulk freighters that can reach Zeta/Eta band, instead of the usual Epsilon. Care to sign a deal giving the Hauptman Cartel exclusive rights for the next 100 years?"
My reasoning is as follows:
1) He is/was heavily involved in ship production prior to First Havenite War, and continued throughout both wars. Additionally he also invested heavily into Blackbird yards in Grayson, and presumably also had investments at Yorik, Grendlesbane, and other yards. Also a good assumption he invested, again, into the post-Yawata Strike shipyards.
2) Using his knowledge, derived from point 1, his Atlas-class liners that did the Silesia run had, previously unheard of, levels of technology. In HH6, Honor was surprised that the Atlas had the same technology her Homer-class Nike had, just 3 years earlier (in HH3). That included everything except the FTL comms, and full stealth systems.
Now I'd expect that since Honor was surprised, this meant she wasn't briefed on the Atlas' capabilities. Since it wasn't a Janacek Admiralty, they would have briefed Honor properly on anything she might encounter (friendlies in addition to possible hostiles). This would further imply Hauptman did it on the sly, and just never mentioned how much technology he did put into the Atlases.
3) I believe Hauptman was also heavily involved, in the Grayson-inspired JNMTC concept. Taking standard (civilian) freighters, and upgrading them to basically pocket unarmed warships (sensors, defenses, and speed)
4) Hauptman was also very heavily involved (boy, he's heavily involved in everything isn't he?
![Laughing :lol:](./images/smilies/icon_lol.gif)
Since the Nat Turner's are essentially hyper-capable Shrikes, and Hauptman's other access producing just about everything else, the frigates probably also have considerable amounts of Manticoran-tech in them. Maybe not the absolute latest, but Buttercup-era tech (including compensators, and ECM) is almost a certainty.
So Hauptman's basically heavily involved in just about anything relating to shipyards. And that he already has, on at least two occasion (Nat Turners and Atlas liners), included military-grade tech into "civilian" ships. Would he go ahead and make those high-speed bulk freighters to lock-in new trade routes and get a good lock on those new markets?
Or for that matter, does anyone picture anyone else doing the same thing, perhaps the Rembrandt Trade Union?