Inner Circle Assault Force- LaMA Spoiler

As the current phase of the war with the CoGA nears a conclusion, will the Inner Circle (IC) begin recruiting and assault force capable of using the toys in nimue's Cave?

Personally, I like the suggestion a while back suggesting that there be a seijin academy of sorts. I doubt it will begin as an academy, but perhaps some sort of apprenticeship under Nimue and Merlin. In any case the IC needs to begin thinking about recruiting for more robust active operations. At some point they will have to go into the Temple to take out whatever hides beneath. That might just mean they need forces armed with terran tech. I suppose that beginning the recruiting process now makes sense regardless of how aggressive one is about going into the Temple.

The "fun" part of your idea is that individuals who would be perfect for this sort of team are individuals who perfect for the current war.

Remember David Weber has reminded us that bringing somebody into the Inner Circle risks their "bad" reaction to the Truth with the result that the person has to be killed.

Thus attempting to bring a useful individual into the Inner Circle risks ruining his usefulness (ie he's dead so he's not useful anymore).

So while I like the idea in many ways, I can't help but see the problems.

PeterZ wrote:As the current phase of the war with the CoGA nears a conclusion, will the Inner Circle (IC) begin recruiting and assault force capable of using the toys in nimue's Cave?

Personally, I like the suggestion a while back suggesting that there be a seijin academy of sorts. I doubt it will begin as an academy, but perhaps some sort of apprenticeship under Nimue and Merlin. In any case the IC needs to begin thinking about recruiting for more robust active operations. At some point they will have to go into the Temple to take out whatever hides beneath. That might just mean they need forces armed with terran tech. I suppose that beginning the recruiting process now makes sense regardless of how aggressive one is about going into the Temple.

I know there will be problems. I sort of like from a literary appreciation of angst and sorrow perspective to see some sacrifice. Somebody who refuses to give up his allegiance to his own version of God even when he admires the people asking him to make that sacrifice. How do the good guys respond to that? From a purely literary perspective, that's emotional gold.

From a planning perspective, they need to address the potential of needing high tech weaponry to breach the Temple defenses. In the end they might not need any, but not planning for it or at least researching whether they do or not seems imprudent.

DrakBibliophile wrote:The "fun" part of your idea is that individuals who would be perfect for this sort of team are individuals who perfect for the current war.

Remember David Weber has reminded us that bringing somebody into the Inner Circle risks their "bad" reaction to the Truth with the result that the person has to be killed.

Thus attempting to bring a useful individual into the Inner Circle risks ruining his usefulness (ie he's dead so he's not useful anymore).

So while I like the idea in many ways, I can't help but see the problems.

Well if they want to take the long view use war orphans. There should be plenty especially from places like Siddimark. Not just as high tech assault troops, but use Nimue's cave as a seed for a true high tech society. Get kids to young to have been indoctrinated to the point of no return and raise them inside the cave. I could imagine it could easily support several hundred upwards to several thousand people based on the dimensions given. And I am sure OWL could cobble up some construction equipment to expand.

Why not build your own secret seijin village and temple high in the mountain, where it is nearly impossible to reach? Great backstory and position to have.

The war orphans idea is at least intriguing. Bring them in before they are thoroughly indoctrinated with COGA teaching and train them with the truth.

Of course such recruits wouldn't be immediately available to assault temple. They would have to grow up first!

Don

n7axw wrote:The war orphans idea is at least intriguing. Bring them in before they are thoroughly indoctrinated with COGA teaching and train them with the truth.

Of course such recruits wouldn't be immediately available to assault temple. They would have to grow up first!

Don

This of course is true. But Merlin, Cayleb, and Sharleyne have all admitted this war is not going to be a quick thing, possibly being fought by their grandchildren.

We know there is going to be the 20 year gap, at which point the orphans would in fact be ready.

Direwolf18 wrote:Don

This of course is true. But Merlin, Cayleb, and Sharleyne have all admitted this war is not going to be a quick thing, possibly being fought by their grandchildren.

We know there is going to be the 20 year gap, at which point the orphans would in fact be ready.[/quote]

Of course some of the war orphans might be young enough for NEAT inferface implants.

PeterZ wrote:

Direwolf18 wrote:Don

This of course is true. But Merlin, Cayleb, and Sharleyne have all admitted this war is not going to be a quick thing, possibly being fought by their grandchildren.

We know there is going to be the 20 year gap, at which point the orphans would in fact be ready.

Of course some of the war orphans might be young enough for NEAT inferface implants.[/quote]

I would think that the matter of the Temple will have been dealt with by then. personally I doubt that Alliance will be willing to wait 20 years for that.

Don

Hi Drak,

Kudos!

Excellent point!

Personally the idea of Merlin, Cayleb, Sharleyan and the whole inner circle raising up young men like Hector or Paityr only to have to kill so many of them when they can't accept the full truth is a bit hard to accept.

Just who fits the profile?

The only one that comes to mind are the personal guardsmen for Cayleb and Sharleyan, but they have families and friends so disappearing them is quite a headache as Albrecht Detweiler found out.

Then there's the killing of them; one or two, or just a few, yes; but the probable dozens and potentially hundreds needed to get to the 200 needed for the federation weapons and assault shuttle?

Nope, as tough as they are, not Cayleb and Sharleyan or Merlin etc.

Regarding the orphan idea, fine but who's going to be the nannies when both Nahrmahn and OWL are rather immaterial when it comes to being hands on?

Which could be quite entertaining, but fraught with problems by curious kids that get to places that seemed impossible when they're first incarcerated.

While some volunteers from St Zherneau and the convent are quite possible, they're kinda old.

You're going to need a lot of younger, energetic people to ride herd on the orphans, and I'd consider using an island they couldn't leave rather than Nimue's cave until the kids could really be trusted.

OWL may need to build some more stealth transports since so far as we know there are only 2 recon skimmers and one air taxi or bus, which Merlin alone is using quite a bit.

None of this gets the inner circle any closer to the thing in the temple basement for 20 years.

Shucks, perhaps that's one reason the series jumps 20 years.

OTOH, what happens after these commando kids raid the temple with the satanic or angelic-forbidden weapons?

Everybody forgets until they somehow get to the same tech level?

L

DrakBibliophile wrote:The "fun" part of your idea is that individuals who would be perfect for this sort of team are individuals who perfect for the current war.

Remember David Weber has reminded us that bringing somebody into the Inner Circle risks their "bad" reaction to the Truth with the result that the person has to be killed.

Thus attempting to bring a useful individual into the Inner Circle risks ruining his usefulness (ie he's dead so he's not useful anymore).

So while I like the idea in many ways, I can't help but see the problems.

PeterZ wrote:As the current phase of the war with the CoGA nears a conclusion, will the Inner Circle (IC) begin recruiting and assault force capable of using the toys in nimue's Cave?

Personally, I like the suggestion a while back suggesting that there be a seijin academy of sorts. I doubt it will begin as an academy, but perhaps some sort of apprenticeship under Nimue and Merlin. In any case the IC needs to begin thinking about recruiting for more robust active operations. At some point they will have to go into the Temple to take out whatever hides beneath. That might just mean they need forces armed with terran tech. I suppose that beginning the recruiting process now makes sense regardless of how aggressive one is about going into the Temple.