ThinksMarkedly wrote:cthia wrote:Thanks for the passage and explanation tlb. It is always good to reread that. I adore AAC. That bugle sound of the cavalry coming always gives me goosebumps. It is what spurred the parody of Honor at the Bat over in the humor thread.
I didn't think Honor was in n-space because I couldn't understand why that large of a force coming out of the junction couldn't be seen by the Peeps. And who else would a force that large be. And if indeed Tourville was waiting in hyper to mousetrap Honor, then surely he could see the action. But I suppose he could have a ship waiting to hyper back out with the news.
Tourville wasn't waiting in hyper. He was deep in the hyperlimit and at this time had already fought Home Fleet and was taking fire from Third Fleet under Adm. Kuzak. You're thinking of Adm. Genevieve Chin.
The reason Adm. Chin had been in hyper was that she could attack all Alliance forces from behind. At this point, Tourville could see Home and Third Fleets. And Third Fleet had a few Invictus with Keyhole II (Adm. McKeon's division or squadron), which means Tourville's Second Fleet was taking heavy damage. They couldn't tell where Eighth Fleet was. It was possible Eighth hadn't been at Trevor's Star and had instead exited to attack somewhere in Haven space. So after waiting what they thought was enough, they sent a destroyer that had been in n-space back into Alpha to bring Adm. Chin and Fifth Fleet in.
Honor later arrived with Eighth. She wasn't waiting in hyper either. She made the fastest transit possible from the Junction to Manticore space. She did drop 70 million km out from Adm. Chin, who at this point was still outside the hyperlimit, meaning Eighth Fleet dropped very far from the limit too. The Hermes network between Manticore-A and the Junction was still operating and messages took barely 7 minutes one-way, so Honor had all the information she needed to attack before she left the Junction.
The Havenites could have made FTL messages too, but they'd need them carried by ship. That means it couldn't be as fast as Hermes. The way communications could have worked would be with two small Q-ships. One would observe Eighth Fleet beginning to show up and then come to the inner system to advise that yes, Eighth is eventually coming. The second would come when Eighth was mostly completely massed and was actually coming.
But even then, this strategy wouldn't (or didn't) work, for two reasons. First, Tourville and Second Fleet were taking heavy damage from Third Fleet, especially because of those Apollo missiles McKeon had. He needed Chin to come in and relieve him, lest there be nothing left of Second in the inner system, which would leave Chin and Fifth Fleet to face the remnants of Home, Third and Eighth Fleet from three different directions. Remember also that Eighth Fleet had been away from the terminus on the other side, so there was a long while when none of those ships had shown up at the Junction, so Tourville called Chin in.
And second, Honor made the mass transit and then came in without a dogleg. The second Q-ship wouldn't have known in advance those ships were coming until they did, at which point it would make the translation up to Alpha and come into the inner system. And they wouldn't come directly because it was indeed too risky, as posted above. That means this ship would have begun its transit late and Honor would have beat it to the inner system. Besides, it was a moot point anyway because Chin had already transited in.
There you go! That is why I like AAC so much, aside from the joyful cavalry charge. AAC has so much naval strategy AND tactics packed in a small scene. The author gives a lot of food for thought in that one, and enough to keep the HV military strategists busy for years to come. I bet it is used by the officers at Saganami Island as a teaching tool.
Nice analysis ThinksMarkedly. It is also why I like the thread dedicated to kzt.