A Tactical Problem for your Consideration

2nd, 3rd, 5th and 8th fleet were all inside the RZ IIRC.

Vince wrote:Given the size of the egos of the SLN admirals involved, do you really think they will give up any of their toys to any of their rivals to play with?*

Byng was an exception in taking a Frontier Fleet task force because of his hatred of Manticore.

*Yes, if the SLN admirals are not spoiled children, they certainly act like they are.

drothgery wrote:The SLN is huge. Even with the MAlign actively working to prevent it, the odds are a handful of competent flag officers slipped in merely by random chance.

fallsfromtrees wrote:Fillereta was competent, even if his personal life was loathsome.

Competent? Yes. But willing to give up his toys to another SLN Admiral? Probably not. Also, he is dead, so that is one less competent admiral commanding actual forces (as opposed to the ones commanding un'Ready Reserve' forces) from a division of the SLN (Battle Fleet) that is severely under-supplied with competent flag officers to begin with (as Admiral Henke pointed out, they seem to have a filtering process that selects for stupidity). Frontier Fleet seems to have the lion's share of competent flag officers commanding actual forces.

My proposal isn't to fight in hyper, but to hide in hyper and then hyper back in within my own range envelop of the bad guys. The Paul Revere destroyer is posititoned in stealth far enough out to be able to get its wedge up and close enough in to monitor the wormhole on passives.

Don

kzt wrote:2nd, 3rd, 5th and 8th fleet were all inside the RZ IIRC.

At the Battle of Manticore this is where the forces were.

Home Fleet - D'Orville: In orbit around Sphinx, inside the resonance zone and hyper limit. Left orbit to meet 3rd Fleet. Did not leave the resonance zone.

2nd Fleet - Tourville: Translated in 'right on the intersection of the resonance zone and the hyper limit and split the angle almost exactly. It's not a least-time approach, but it means they can break back across the zone boundary if it gets too deep instead of being committed to the inner-system".'* Entered the resonance zone en route towards Sphinx and Home Fleet.

3rd Fleet (plus attachments: Admiral McKeon's battle squadron - 3 with Apollo - and Admiral Truman's carriers**) - Kuzak: At the Trevor's Star terminus. Went through the Junction, then microjumped into hyper. Translated in 'further "up" the zone's outer surface than he*** had. That put her in a position to move quickly to Sphinx's relief, accelerating directly towards the planet on a least-time course along the shortest passage through the RZ'. Entered the resonance zone.

5th Fleet - Admiral Chin: Translated in outside the resonance zone, catching 3rd Fleet in the resonance zone between 3rd and 5th Fleets. 'Unlike Oliver Diamato's battlecruisers, Third Fleet couldn't dodge the pulser dart. Admiral Kuzak's command was too deep, pinned inside the RZ. Kuzak had intended to catch Second Fleet between her command and the Sphinx planetary defenses; now she was caught between the oncoming hammer of Genevieve Chin's MDMs and the battered anvil of Lester Tourville's surviving SD(P)s.' Never entered the resonance zone. Was caught by 8th Fleet (using Apollo) when it microjumped from the Junction. The remainder of the forces not destroyed or damaged too severely by 8th Fleet (including Admiral Chin) translated into hyper and made it back to Havenite territory.****

8th Fleet - Admiral Harrington: Off the Trevor's Star terminus. Moved to the Trevor's Star terminus and detached anti-scouting forces as an advanced force en route. Went through the Junction with approximately half of total forces when 5th Fleet translated in, then had remaining forces (SDPs and CLACs minus Admiral Miller's battlecruisers) execute a mass translation through the terminus. 'Honor didn't reply. She was already turning to the sidebars of her own tactical display. Sixteen of her thirty-two superdreadnoughts were still in Trevor's Star, as were all of Samuel Miklós' carriers and thirty of her battlecruisers. She looked at the numbers for perhaps one heartbeat, then turned back to her staff.
"Mercedes, send a dispatch boat back to Trevor's Star. Inform Admiral Miller that he's in command and that he's to hold all of our battlecruisers there. Tell him he's responsible for covering Trevor's Star until we get back to him. Then instruct Judah to bring Admiral Miklós' carriers and all the rest of the wallers through in a single transit."' Microjumped from the Junction inside the resonance zone and caught 5th Fleet from behind using Apollo. 'Her voice was crisp, calm, despite her own shock, and Brigham looked at her for a moment, then nodded sharply.
"Aye, aye, Your Grace!"
"Theo," she continued, pointing one index finger at Commander Kgari, "start plotting a new micro-jump. We'll go straight from here; no dogleg. I want us at least fifty million kilometers outside these newcomers. Seventy-five to a hundred would be better, but don't shave it any closer than fifty."
Kgari looked at her for a moment, and she tasted his shock. She was allowing him a much larger margin of error than Admiral Kuzak had allowed Third Fleet's units, but she was also requiring him to jump straight from a point inside the RZ to one on its periphery. Safety margin or no, astrogation that precise was going to be extraordinarily difficult to deliver, given the fact that his start point's coordinates were going to be subject to significant uncertainty, whatever he did.'

Haven battlecruiser scouting detachment - Rear Admiral Diamato: Translated in outside the Junction and 'well to the side of the resonance zone'. Never entered the resonance zone. Was driven off into hyper by 8th Fleet's anti-scouting detachment.

8th Fleet advanced anti-scouting detachment - Rear Admiral Oversteegen's battlecruiser's plus attachments - Admiral Bradshaw's and Commodore Fanaafi's Saganami-Cs: With 8th Fleet at the Trevor's Star terminus. Moved to the terminus ahead of 8th Fleet's SDPs. Went through the terminus to the Junction, then almost microjumped back in on Diamato 'Whoever had taken the Sherman as his intended target had come in far closer than most of the others, but all of them showed remarkably good astrogation for such a short jump. Then the vector readouts came up, and he swore again. From their headings, and especially from their velocity numbers, they'd obviously managed to hyper out of the Junction without his ever noticing, then come back in after building their velocity in hyper, so the jump wasn't quite as short as he'd thought it was.'*****

Quotes are from At All Costs.

*D'Orville's Chief of Staff reporting to him.

**The text actually states (Honor addressing Kuzak): "With your permission, I'll temporarily assign Admiral McKeon's battle squadron and Admiral Truman's carriers to you." Interesting that the term carriers is used and not CLACs. This might have been a small slip by David.

***"He" in the quote refers to Tourville and the "than he had" refers to 2nd Fleet - the quote is from part of Tourville's thoughts.

****Confirmed in Mission of Honor. Exactly how many made it back of the 17 impeller signatures that survived 8th Fleet's Apollo missile salvo was not given.

*****Diamato's thoughts.