A Manticoran Disinformation Gamble

Valen123456 wrote:I been having some thoughts on the future story-lines of the series and a slightly crazy idea has come to me. Currently the massive tech advantage Manticore and Haven now share over the SLN is one of the big game pieces in the plot right now. I have been wondering how Manticore might try to use this and a slight crazy intelligence scheme popped into my head (albeit one worthy of the Manpower Incident in its potential to backfire). Its a huge gamble but it would definitely cause some movement on all sides.

At this point any Sollie intelligence officer or techy or transteller will sell significant parts of their anatomy in order to get their hands on anything regarding Manticoran tech be it plans/schematics, samples pieces, or whole functional units.

Now what if some enterprising Manty intelligence agent were to suddenly start to offer all these secrets for sale?! Take a page out of Mesa's handbook and play the chaos game. They would definitely find anyone they approached for a sale as willing and as generous as they could dream.

However, what if said Intel-broker wasn't giving out real Manti hardware (which would be monumentally dangerous in the present circumstances) but instead deliberately modified or known-to-be defective designs or components. The agent issues them out to a handful of peoples around the Solarian League (not the main federal peoples on Old Earth), especially the ones who are openly resentful towards someone else in the League, or a greedy middling transteller whos first thought is profit and not loyalty to the greater good of the SLN. Remember the real power brokers and influence peddlers within the League are pretty cynical and self-centered bastards with their main focus being "numero uno" or their families pockets at least, not loyalty to something bigger than themselves (like the Manticoran crown, or Republican people).

Dangle enough lines and give out enough (defective) toys before anyone knows about the defects, and then let others in on the secret of the transfers. What you then get is a large number of greedy and self entered people suddenly fighting with each other over secrets of immense power and profit, only to suddenly find that they do not really work anyway.

What you get is a massive intelligence powerplay and foulup with a lot of people who should be bonding together in the face of a common enemy all squabbling over scraps and not achieving anything, or building something new only to run into errors and get egg on their faces, or have others on their own side trying to steal it form them for their own gain.

That is my little idea.

Or alternatively, no-one on Manticores side will want to rock the boat any further or risk having the SLN getting any (even potentially) good ideas, and the person who suggests the crazy idea gets fed to Sonja Hemphill as a chewtoy for trying to play dangerous games with her toys.

Weird Harold wrote:

Zakharra wrote:SL techs and scientists aren't stupid, so the SEM/GA would have to let pieces of tech that could work fall into SL hands. Even if the pieces are defective (bad manufacturing) it would teach them something valuable and give them an enormous leg up in figuring out the new Manty tech and evening the odds, and with the size of the SL, they could afford to shotgun the R&D on it and manufacturing of the tech as well.

Perhaps Haven could release "Charles" from durance vile and send him to sell The Crippler(tm) to the SLN and selected SDFs.

Perhaps carefully edited reports on Fearless' weapons fit at Basilisk Station could be leaked so that TWWSNBN and energy torpedoes look like war winning weapons.

There are a lot of dead-end technologies that enterprising con-men, like "Charles", could peddle all over the Solarian League without compromising any useful GA tech.

Theemile wrote:So what happens if you give it to the SLN and they find a workable doctrine, or worse, makes the breakthrough that every other new poster to this board has mentioned and shoehorned the Gravlance into shoulder fired rocket launcher?

Weird Harold wrote:

Theemile wrote:So what happens if you give it to the SLN and they find a workable doctrine, or worse, makes the breakthrough that every other new poster to this board has mentioned and shoehorned the Gravlance into shoulder fired rocket launcher?

The SLN knows what TWTSNBN is and how to build one. The same for energy torpedoes. The Fearless' particular weapons fit was a dead end development track. They undoubtedly have a few SD's with TWTSNBN and energy torpedoes in the broadside.

Convincing the SLN that Fearless' weapons fit wasn't a dead end by leaking Honor's successes could provide a wasteful diversion of SLN R&D resources better spent on more rational weapons fits.

If nothing else, it could start the SLN working on defensive tactics against a threat that doesn't exist.

Zakharra wrote:Right now, plans for tactics for any close in ship to ship combat with grav lances, grasers and torpedoes is a moot point. The SLN has to survive long enough to get close enough to use said close in weapons. ...

Zakharra wrote:[

Right now, plans for tactics for any close in ship to ship combat with grav lances, grasers and torpedoes is a moot point. The SLN has to survive long enough to get close enough to use said close in weapons. Missiles, pods and defenses against them are the things to be concerned about. I'm sure if the SLN could get its SDs in close enough to the RMN ships to engage in an energy cannon duel, the odds would be a lot more even, but right now that's like saying WWII warships are still viable weapons platforms in the age if jet planes and high speed missiles. Those WWII cruisers and BBs and aircraft carriers are the SLN while the RMN/RHN are the 1990s US/British naval (to use an analogy loosely.)

Weird Harold wrote:

Zakharra wrote:Right now, plans for tactics for any close in ship to ship combat with grav lances, grasers and torpedoes is a moot point. The SLN has to survive long enough to get close enough to use said close in weapons. ...

You're missing the point that the idea is to entice the SLN's R&D to waste time and resources trying to get a "proven Manticoran weapons fit" into effective range.

We the readers, the RMN, RHN, and Grayson know that the Fearless' weapons fit is a dead-end that never have gone further than the second engagement of the fleet exercise -- but the SLN doesn't know that, and Honor scored sufficient success with Fearless for a competent Con-man to sell it as a viable weapons fit to a Navy desperate for a miracle weapon to save them.

quoted by StewartThe loose analogy is much like the British and French navies when the Brits had rifled cannon barrels and the French did not. Range advantage Britain.
In another forum it was noted that the weapons disparity drops when the Sollies get in THEIR range, Sollie BC's can take out Rolands and (maybe) Saganami-C's with a heavier BC warhead IF they got in range. Much like a Jutland-era Battle Cruiser or Heavy Cruiser could take out a Spruance or Burke with their 10" and 12" guns, but the range of Harpoon and Tomahawk on the Spru-Cans and Burkes would not let that happen.

The Technodyne Missiles are their first start, but the targeting systems and ship-to-missile communications are the weak point.

Recon platform power and communications will be the key to any effective Sollie response (if they can manage it).

I suspect the Verge and Core systems that have the technical ability to upgrade their SDF's to be effective may, like the Maya sector, opt to keep their information to themselves and go independent or side with Beowolf.

-- Stewart

Zakharra wrote:Any ship to ship energy weapon exchange is still a moot point at this time and even the SLN knows it.