SPOILER ... Do the ends justify the means???

Rincewind wrote:

kzt wrote:They have NO IDEA. They may know the broad concept and possibly the nickname. The MAN, which built them and has a complete understanding of the theory and technology, can detect the drive at a light second. Which is inside energy range.

The RMN believes that they can detect and effectively prosecute a ship making a subtle hyper transit around Manticore and have a reasonable ability to detect the narrow thermal signature that is theorized to exist on a spider ship.

But say you have a spider around Mesa. The blow up the orbital stations and leave. How close is anyone going to get to see the thermal signature from the ship, which is pointed at Mesa and oddly enough not at the approaching RMN ships?

Might I also point out that the explosion occurred near simultaneously (allowing for transmission lag) after Albrecht Detweiller pressed the button of the device in his hand. (Shadow of Victory Chapter 77 page 748). To me that strongly suggests that they were demolition charges already emplaced & not missiles launched from any Sharks which may have been orbiting. Also the reluctance of Benjamin to expose the Sharks to discovery by trying to attack the remainder of the RMN's wall of battle at Trevor's Star would also argue against leaving one or several of them in close orbit to Mesa when they were already evacuating Mesa because of its known vulnerability to attack by the GA especially when they had gone to great lengths to make sure nobody else knew about them.

kaid wrote:One interesting thing would be how many people who were targets of those bombs was not where the alignment thought they would be. Somebody was on an unexpected business trip or trist elsewhere suddenly realizes what happened and after having their family and friends murdered now has a burning reason to cooperate with the manties.

SYED wrote:They planned on Mesa being sacrificed at least temporily, but I doubt they ever considered a seccie and slave revolution being successful. Who knows what could have slipped into the cracks. A reorganized Mesa could be a useful weapon against the alignment.

SYED wrote:For surveillance, not necessarily to control their new government.

kaid wrote:One interesting thing would be how many people who were targets of those bombs was not where the alignment thought they would be. Somebody was on an unexpected business trip or trist elsewhere suddenly realizes what happened and after having their family and friends murdered now has a burning reason to cooperate with the manties.

Even for the people who got off maybe they in theory signed up for it but theory is one thing realizing your family and friends were all murdered by your own people makes me wonder how many defectors wind up being produced by houdini.

Loren Pechtel wrote:

kaid wrote:One interesting thing would be how many people who were targets of those bombs was not where the alignment thought they would be. Somebody was on an unexpected business trip or trist elsewhere suddenly realizes what happened and after having their family and friends murdered now has a burning reason to cooperate with the manties.

Even for the people who got off maybe they in theory signed up for it but theory is one thing realizing your family and friends were all murdered by your own people makes me wonder how many defectors wind up being produced by houdini.

The bombs blew up people waiting to evacuate, not people that would be going off on a business trip. I would expect a basically 100% kill unless someone got cold feet for some reason and left.