HFQ Official Snippet #22

DrakBibliophile wrote:One thought that I had on "followers of Kau-yung" was that we know Kau-yung planned to nuke Langhorne but what evidence did the survivors have on who nuked Langhorne?

Perhaps one of the reasons for the War Between The Angels is that some of the angels didn't believe Kau-yung was guilty but blamed Chihiro and/or Schueler.

After all, it would be seen as "interesting" that they weren't at the meeting that got nuked.

It would seem to me that Kau-yung's "troops" would be very likely in the group that believed he was innocent of nuking Langhorne so would oppose Chihiro and Schueler.

Since, they were trained military, they would likely be in the forefront of those opposing Chihiro and Schueler.

Thus "followers of Kau-yung" would be the understandable term to use.

By the way, wasn't there something in an earlier snippet about Langhorne *not* involved in the Alexandria strike?

Perhaps, Kau-yung's nuke happened before Langhorne "mournfully" informed the other angels about "what he had to do".

The Word Of Weber is that Langhorne hide his plans for the Orbital Weapon from all of the other angels.

Nobody knew about it before the Alexandria attack.

Perhaps, the "rebels" didn't believe that Langhorne attacked Alexandria but believed that Chihiro and Schueler were responsible.

n7awx wrote:There is a rather obvious hole in the story, isn't there? Just how the survivors of Kauyung's attack would have known whodunnit is a puzzler.

BobG wrote:

DrakBibliophile wrote:One thought that I had on "followers of Kau-yung" was that we know Kau-yung planned to nuke Langhorne but what evidence did the survivors have on who nuked Langhorne?

Perhaps one of the reasons for the War Between The Angels is that some of the angels didn't believe Kau-yung was guilty but blamed Chihiro and/or Schueler.

After all, it would be seen as "interesting" that they weren't at the meeting that got nuked.

It would seem to me that Kau-yung's "troops" would be very likely in the group that believed he was innocent of nuking Langhorne so would oppose Chihiro and Schueler.

Since, they were trained military, they would likely be in the forefront of those opposing Chihiro and Schueler.

Thus "followers of Kau-yung" would be the understandable term to use.

By the way, wasn't there something in an earlier snippet about Langhorne *not* involved in the Alexandria strike?

Perhaps, Kau-yung's nuke happened before Langhorne "mournfully" informed the other angels about "what he had to do".

The Word Of Weber is that Langhorne hide his plans for the Orbital Weapon from all of the other angels.

Nobody knew about it before the Alexandria attack.

Perhaps, the "rebels" didn't believe that Langhorne attacked Alexandria but believed that Chihiro and Schueler were responsible.

Something finally percollated through to me. If Langhorne was the only Archangel who knew about the ORBS, and if he died in the vest-pocket nuke blast, then who reprogrammed the ORBS after-the-fact? I would guess that he launched the attack on Armageddon Reef, but would he have fully programmed the ORBS with his complete set of instructions before he was killed? I would guess that he wasn't finished setting things up, so maybe that's why steam engines didn't trigger it. For that matter, it may not be operational at all. If the remaining supporters couldn't access the commands for the ORBS because he had it under his own passcode or whatever personal id system they had, then no one else may have had the capacity to further enable the system beyond his initial commands.

Of course, do you want to take a risk that isn't the case?

-- Bob G

Randomiser wrote:

n7awx wrote:There is a rather obvious hole in the story, isn't there? Just how the survivors of Kauyung's attack would have known whodunnit is a puzzler.

Obviously he left a video on the internet explaining what he had done and why!

Seriously how many of the folk at the meeting had the motive and the access to a concealable nuclear weapon required to blow it up?

Ramhawkfan wrote:

Something finally percollated through to me. If Langhorne was the only Archangel who knew about the ORBS, and if he died in the vest-pocket nuke blast, then who reprogrammed the ORBS after-the-fact? I would guess that he launched the attack on Armageddon Reef, but would he have fully programmed the ORBS with his complete set of instructions before he was killed? I would guess that he wasn't finished setting things up, so maybe that's why steam engines didn't trigger it. For that matter, it may not be operational at all. If the remaining supporters couldn't access the commands for the ORBS because he had it under his own passcode or whatever personal id system they had, then no one else may have had the capacity to further enable the system beyond his initial commands.

Of course, do you want to take a risk that isn't the case?

-- Bob G

Someone had access to it, hence the strike on Kody's Tomb, long after Langhorns death.

AirTech wrote:Or the other alternative is that the NEAT had a recording function (think implanted smart phone with internet access (both up-link and down-link, possibly effective telepathy between members of the same network, with a possible range limit (WiFi? (Merlin's low speed data link's original purpose?))) and he saw something that someone didn't want seen - ever. This may have prompted someone to want the his NEAT permanently erased as soon as they had the required access to achieve it without anyone querying their decision. I think the relation between Chihiro and Schuler may have a direct bearing on this. Probing Kohdy's NEAT may be on Merlin's agenda.

Louis R wrote:The strike on the SSK isn't precluded by Bob's idea: authority to initiate a manually-targeted strike isn't necessarily full system access.

However, my own belief is that the evidence points to the existing OBS being a developement of Langhorne's original. RFC has indicated that it was deployed from Hamilcar immediately before the Alexandria strike, so it wouldn't have had any need for - and perhaps no room to store - the defensive components OWL and Merlin probed. It also probably had a great many more launch units than there are now, given the intensity of the first bombardment. Langhorne was clearly not interested in the sort of surgical strikes demonstrated by the later version, and it's entirely possible that whoever built it for him lacked the expertise to create something more subtle anyway. That would mean that Bob's basic premise is wrong, because Langhorne didn't actually have a lot to do with the existing system.

n7axw wrote:

Randomiser wrote:Obviously he left a video on the internet explaining what he had done and why!

Seriously how many of the folk at the meeting had the motive and the access to a concealable nuclear weapon required to blow it up?

I suppose that would explain it, although why the good commodore would do up a video is beyond me. He certainly didn't owe that bunch an explanation.

Your other point might be a bit stronger. Kauyung and Shan-wei were publically estranged. So the motive side of the equation might not have been obvious. But certainly he would have been the one with the means...

Don

n7axw wrote:

Randomiser wrote:Obviously he left a video on the internet explaining what he had done and why!

Seriously how many of the folk at the meeting had the motive and the access to a concealable nuclear weapon required to blow it up?

I suppose that would explain it, although why the good commodore would do up a video is beyond me. He certainly didn't owe that bunch an explanation.

Your other point might be a bit stronger. Kauyung and Shan-wei were publically estranged. So the motive side of the equation might not have been obvious. But certainly he would have been the one with the means...

Don