Of Mike and Mesa

[quote="n7axw"]Does anyone have a better idea of Mike's strength than I do?

From SoF, I have it at 20 SDPs and 20 CLACs. An undetermined number of those CLACs are back in Talbot. Never mind BCs, Rolands, Sag-Cs, etc.

--

Mike likely (1) left a picket of DD's and CA's at Meyers; (2) Sent a task force to secure McIntosh -- BC's and CA's with a CLAC division would overwhelm anything there.
that might account for the numbers; and she MAY have left a small force in hyper to intercept where the speediest rats scampered off to.

-- just a thought.
-- Stewart

Somewhere up above someone speculated very tentatively that it would take a week for Michelle to report home via the Mesa - Visigoth hyperbridge.

Mesa to Manticore via diplomatic dispatch boat through the wormhole should take very close to 9 days, presuming that Visigoth traffic control would even allow such a transit to complete. Off-hand I cannot recall if Visigoth is formally an SL member or not. Reporting via the Lynx Terminus would take something like 30-40 days, although there may be some faster mid-route connections that we are not aware of.

dreamrider

stewart wrote:

n7axw wrote:Does anyone have a better idea of Mike's strength than I do?

From SoF, I have it at 20 SDPs and 20 CLACs. An undetermined number of those CLACs are back in Talbot. Never mind BCs, Rolands, Sag-Cs, etc.

--

Mike likely (1) left a picket of DD's and CA's at Meyers; (2) Sent a task force to secure McIntosh -- BC's and CA's with a CLAC division would overwhelm anything there.
that might account for the numbers; and she MAY have left a small force in hyper to intercept where the speediest rats scampered off to.

-- just a thought.
-- Stewart

She left three squadrons of LACs at Meyers. An undetermined number of DDs and CAs are headed to the rest of the Madras Sector planets, everything else is headed to Mesa. This is in one of the last paragraphs of Shadow of Freedom.

The arrival of the very large hyper footprint at Mesa is going to make the exodus of shipping from the system at the Green Pines event look like a stroll down the road. Merchant shipping is going to just go nuts. Anybody remotely connected with the slave trade is very likely to leap to the idea that this might be Manticore comming to call and override their safeties to get to the hyper limit and just jump somewhere.

I suspect that Mike (or the Andies- we have seen speculation that this is IAE showing up to deal with Mesa) is going to have at least some ship come out of hyper relative to the Visigoth Wormhole and plug that obvious exit point as well as set up a blocking point against anything other than civilian ships that might be comming through. Since Mike (or the Andies) are unlikely to be able to stop at least the last two ships in the outbound queue from transiting the wormhole, word that SOMEBODY with 20 SDs just showed up at Mesa is going to get out directly to Visigoth. Details will be lacking but inbound traffic from Visigoth is going to shut down soonest.

I would expect the Mesan SDF to at least attempt to stop the incomming force. Since we don't have any real numbers and description of what they have but probably nothing significant that can deal with Mike (or the Andies) and they will be beaten off.

The Transstellars put whatever pressure they can on the Mandarins and SL possible to free up their shipping caught at Mesa but essentially they will have to negotiate with Mike and/or eventually directly with Manticore to get any results. That may not be all that hard or long as - unless the ships actually show evidence of working in the slave trade- Manticore is probably going to release them. The length of time it takes to clear individual ships is the sticking point. So is what happens to any ship that runs and ends up confronting a warship telling it to stop.

Mesa actually does have a number of things that it can build and sell in interstellar trade.

Shutting down the slave trade and the breeding of genetic slaves is going to shut off all of that income but so many parts of that business do have other applications.

They produce and supply the maintenance equipment plus related medical supplies for growing embryos in uterine replecators. There are also (if they survive the anticipated slave rising and independent sabotage) have the existing Manpower equipment which could possibly be exported to places who need it.

Mesa also should have any number of industries which already generate goods for export. While we have seen examples of plantets which have some signature export (Montana Beef. Manpower Slaves, specialty wood, fish etc) most are going to have some mix of things that can (and are) sold of-world at a profit. Mesa is an industrailzed world with a wormhole access to Visigoth. It already is part of a wide trade net. Once commerce is allowed to restart, it can access that net. Medical products are going to be high on the list. They have the industry in place. If it survives the destruction of Manpower, it can produce drugs, equipment and materials for export.

Places who need it really aren't going to care much (as in refuse to purchase medical supplies which were/are manufactured on Mesa) where it comes from it they need it for their population and can afford to buy it.

There has been NO hint that Mesa has to import food to maintain its population. While the logistics of raising and producing that food is going to change - presuming that a lot of food production and processing was being handeled by slaves and all of that is going to get sorted out- it will still be producing that food.

Just a thought:)

Brigade XO wrote:Mesa actually does have a number of things that it can build and sell in interstellar trade.

Shutting down the slave trade and the breeding of genetic slaves is going to shut off all of that income but so many parts of that business do have other applications.

They produce and supply the maintenance equipment plus related medical supplies for growing embryos in uterine replecators. There are also (if they survive the anticipated slave rising and independent sabotage) have the existing Manpower equipment which could possibly be exported to places who need it.

Mesa also should have any number of industries which already generate goods for export. While we have seen examples of plantets which have some signature export (Montana Beef. Manpower Slaves, specialty wood, fish etc) most are going to have some mix of things that can (and are) sold of-world at a profit. Mesa is an industrailzed world with a wormhole access to Visigoth. It already is part of a wide trade net. Once commerce is allowed to restart, it can access that net. Medical products are going to be high on the list. They have the industry in place. If it survives the destruction of Manpower, it can produce drugs, equipment and materials for export.

Places who need it really aren't going to care much (as in refuse to purchase medical supplies which were/are manufactured on Mesa) where it comes from it they need it for their population and can afford to buy it.

There has been NO hint that Mesa has to import food to maintain its population. While the logistics of raising and producing that food is going to change - presuming that a lot of food production and processing was being handeled by slaves and all of that is going to get sorted out- it will still be producing that food.

Just a thought:)

Pretty good thought. You missed two industries: mercenaries and the other genetic engineering firm - the Mesan Genetic Consultancy. See Chapter 56, page 465 of the hardcover version of Cauldron of Ghosts. I can see Admiral Henke stomping on the first, but the second looks more or less like a winner.

With mesa space taken, that just puts the journey to manticore space further, and any logistical system far more difficult. Outside of the league, there sollys do not have proper logistical system to support a large or long term naval deployment.
mesa would be a key staging groung for league raiding.

SYED wrote:With mesa space taken, that just puts the journey to manticore space further, and any logistical system far more difficult. Outside of the league, there sollys do not have proper logistical system to support a large or long term naval deployment.
mesa would be a key staging groung for league raiding.

To the Talbot Quadrant, maybe. For the Haven Sector, it is totally the wrong direction.

...And recall: the Talbot Quadrant is Manticore sovereign territory, yes, but it really isn't even as big a player in Manticoran economics yet as Silesia, or the Empire, nor as big a deal as Haven will be in a year's time.

dreamrider

dreamrider

Brigade XO wrote:Mesa actually does have a number of things that it can build and sell in interstellar trade.

Shutting down the slave trade and the breeding of genetic slaves is going to shut off all of that income but so many parts of that business do have other applications.

They produce and supply the maintenance equipment plus related medical supplies for growing embryos in uterine replecators. There are also (if they survive the anticipated slave rising and independent sabotage) have the existing Manpower equipment which could possibly be exported to places who need it.

Mesa also should have any number of industries which already generate goods for export. While we have seen examples of plantets which have some signature export (Montana Beef. Manpower Slaves, specialty wood, fish etc) most are going to have some mix of things that can (and are) sold of-world at a profit. Mesa is an industrailzed world with a wormhole access to Visigoth. It already is part of a wide trade net. Once commerce is allowed to restart, it can access that net. Medical products are going to be high on the list. They have the industry in place. If it survives the destruction of Manpower, it can produce drugs, equipment and materials for export.

Places who need it really aren't going to care much (as in refuse to purchase medical supplies which were/are manufactured on Mesa) where it comes from it they need it for their population and can afford to buy it.

There has been NO hint that Mesa has to import food to maintain its population. While the logistics of raising and producing that food is going to change - presuming that a lot of food production and processing was being handeled by slaves and all of that is going to get sorted out- it will still be producing that food.

Just a thought:)

Mesa is a conglomerate of a number of different corporations. Manpower, Inc. is an important one, but only one of the major corporations based on Mesa. Technodyne is another. Jessyk Combine is another. Mesa has a lot of other industries besides slaves.

Wanna bet those corparations are the type to put their heels on the necks of the verge? with the fall of mesa, those places will either be nationalised, or caretakered by local sollys.