How much orbital traffic does Mesa have? (ToF TextEv)

jdtinIA wrote:What missiles? The "seccies" didn't use any missiles before, why should they start now? All the explosions were caused by the seccies smuggling the bombs ( provided of course by the GA ) into their target areas.

Then why didn't they use it to save General Palane before 10th Fleet arrived. Or why not nuke the centers of government or military bases or shuttleports. Why the "F" nuke a nature preserve?

If the seccies had nukes earlier, then why not use them? If they didn't have the nukes until 10th fleet arrived, how did the Manties get them down without being noticed? If 10th fleet nuked the planet, how did they deliver them if no missiles traces were witnessed? Those would be very hard to miss.

Bottom line is that Sollies will blame the Manties because there was no one else even remotely capable of doing this besides the Manty's boogeymen. And everyone knows that's a myth. The fact that so much of this attack is similar to the mysterious Yawata Strike is irrelevant for now. As time passes and cooler heads prevail, more people will see that just as the Yawata Strike crippled the SEM's production capabilities, the Mesa strikes crippled the GA's interstellar reputation. Both are essential for the SEM and yes, the GA to survive against a human galaxy galvanized against them.

Raoul and Katherine will have a steep hill to climb to beat Albrecht's kids. But hey! They have treecats and they have the strength of 10 for their hearts are pure! Well, Raoul has the strength of 10 'cause he's a genie and Katherine's heart is pure.

jdtinIA wrote:

GregD wrote:Torch of Freedom, Chapter 45, 3rd paragraph:
Just routine. By now, two weeks later, Trimm had only a vague memory of having done an additional check on the Hali Sowle. That was in the records, of course. But she was no more likely to check old records for no reason—the volume of traffic in and out of Mesa was truly enormous—than she would be to start going to work with a hop, skip and a jump rather than taking the perfectly functional tube.

This was for a ship in planetary obit, nowhere near the Terminus.

Yes, it was for ships in planetary orbit. you know, ships that would see if the GA used missiles / KEW to bomb the sites that blew up

jdtinIA wrote:What missiles? The "seccies" didn't use any missiles before, why should they start now? All the explosions were caused by the seccies smuggling the bombs ( provided of course by the GA ) into their target areas.

1: The GA hasn't been in orbit long enough to be giving the seccies bombs. They were heading down when the bombs were set off
2: Seccies with bombs have much better targets than teh places that were actually hit.

GregD wrote:Thank you, all of you, for making my point.

Because private yachts are going to have good scanners, and are likely to have people who actually pay attention to them.
...
"Tramp freighters" might be sloppy about communications & sensor checks. The crews on expensive private yachts are not going to be nearly so lackadaisical.

This is sarcasm, right?

The one "private yacht" in Mesa orbit we have any textev on is the one crewed by Yana and Anton -- and nobody else.

Weird Harold wrote:

GregD wrote:Thank you, all of you, for making my point.

Because private yachts are going to have good scanners, and are likely to have people who actually pay attention to them.
...
"Tramp freighters" might be sloppy about communications & sensor checks. The crews on expensive private yachts are not going to be nearly so lackadaisical.

This is sarcasm, right?

The one "private yacht" in Mesa orbit we have any textev on is the one crewed by Yana and Anton -- and nobody else.

Again, chances are a lot of the traffic is regular stuff: ships that are there a real lot or private yachts of people who are known to the Mesans. There would probably be perfunctory checks made there. As a result, one pinnace could handle quite a few checks in a day, spending more time at unknown ships.

ldwechsler wrote:Again, chances are a lot of the traffic is regular stuff: ships that are there a real lot or private yachts of people who are known to the Mesans. There would probably be perfunctory checks made there. As a result, one pinnace could handle quite a few checks in a day, spending more time at unknown ships.

The question isn't about how thoroughly Mesa Traffic Control checks any given ship, but how good the sensors are and how vigilant the crew might be about recording the sensor take.

Mesa seems to have a higher percentage of private yachts than other systems might have, but while they contribute to the "busy" they won't add much to the scan records.

Weird Harold wrote:

ldwechsler wrote:Again, chances are a lot of the traffic is regular stuff: ships that are there a real lot or private yachts of people who are known to the Mesans. There would probably be perfunctory checks made there. As a result, one pinnace could handle quite a few checks in a day, spending more time at unknown ships.

The question isn't about how thoroughly Mesa Traffic Control checks any given ship, but how good the sensors are and how vigilant the crew might be about recording the sensor take.

Mesa seems to have a higher percentage of private yachts than other systems might have, but while they contribute to the "busy" they won't add much to the scan records.

I suspect that every civilian ship in Mesa orbit that could get away (i.e., not an Malign evacuation ship) left long before Tenth and 2nd Fleets arrived in Mesa orbit. Thus, they would be too far away to see missile traces.

ldwechsler wrote:Again, chances are a lot of the traffic is regular stuff: ships that are there a real lot or private yachts of people who are known to the Mesans. There would probably be perfunctory checks made there. As a result, one pinnace could handle quite a few checks in a day, spending more time at unknown ships.

Weird Harold wrote:The question isn't about how thoroughly Mesa Traffic Control checks any given ship, but how good the sensors are and how vigilant the crew might be about recording the sensor take.

Mesa seems to have a higher percentage of private yachts than other systems might have, but while they contribute to the "busy" they won't add much to the scan records.

Robert_A_Woodward wrote:
I suspect that every civilian ship in Mesa orbit that could get away (i.e., not an Malign evacuation ship) left long before Tenth and 2nd Fleets arrived in Mesa orbit. Thus, they would be too far away to see missile traces.

Dispatch boats that are supporting news organizations are still going to be in Mesa orbit. Remember that a lot of newsies were covering the 'Ballroom' attacks and the Mesan attacks on the seccies, not just O'Hanrahan.

Vince wrote:Dispatch boats that are supporting news organizations are still going to be in Mesa orbit. Remember that a lot of newsies were covering the 'Ballroom' attacks and the Mesan attacks on the seccies, not just O'Hanrahan.

I suspect they will not.

They will leave. Dispatch boat are EXPENSIVE. A reporter might charter a jet to send them to an island to cover the soon to arrive force 5 hurricane, but the jet isn't going to be calmly parked at the airport when the 170 MPH winds arrive.

kzt wrote:

Vince wrote:Dispatch boats that are supporting news organizations are still going to be in Mesa orbit. Remember that a lot of newsies were covering the 'Ballroom' attacks and the Mesan attacks on the seccies, not just O'Hanrahan.

I suspect they will not.

They will leave. Dispatch boat are EXPENSIVE. A reporter might charter a jet to send them to an island to cover the soon to arrive force 5 hurricane, but the jet isn't going to be calmly parked at the airport when the 170 MPH winds arrive.

There is no reason for the dispatch boats under contract to news services to leave, unless the news service is willing to be scooped on the news stories. The dispatch boats might be in parking orbits farther out than normal for interstellar ships actively loading and unloading passengers and/or cargo, but they will still be there. Keep in mind that while the 'Ballroom' was accused of using nukes, not one was delivered by any kind of surface-to-orbit missile (a nuke in the trunk of an aircar in atmosphere does not count as a STO missile), which is what would be required to hit an undocked spaceship in planetary orbit.

Vince wrote:There is no reason for the dispatch boats under contract to news services to leave, unless the news service is willing to be scooped on the news stories. The dispatch boats might be in parking orbits farther out than normal for interstellar ships actively loading and unloading passengers and/or cargo, but they will still be there. Keep in mind that while the 'Ballroom' was accused of using nukes, not one was delivered by any kind of surface-to-orbit missile (a nuke in the trunk of an aircar in atmosphere does not count as a STO missile), which is what would be required to hit an undocked spaceship in planetary orbit.

The reporters can stay if they want. But the Manties normal thing has been to shut down all traffic for some time. Like many weeks at best. This assumes there isn't an actual battle. In any case, dispatch boats are very damn expensive and extremely fragile.