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Official HFQ Snippet #24

This fascinating series is a combination of historical seafaring, swashbuckling adventure, and high technological science-fiction. Join us in a discussion!
Re: Official HFQ Snippet #24
Post by n7axw   » Mon May 18, 2015 12:07 pm

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evilauthor wrote:
isaac_newton wrote:Being a nuke, I'm pretty sure that not just the council room would have been effected. From the description of the blast at the start of OAR as seen from the village acress the lake it was not small, and therefore would have removed everyone in the vicinity! maybe up to several kilometers?


Also, the comments about how the current Temple is over-armored suggests that the previous Temple (the one Kau-Yung blew up) was a much flimsier structure... relatively speaking. Likely made out of normal, non-armor materials.


There is no textev to suggest a Temple at all. The current Temple was built on the site of the command crew's HQ. The building of the Teple symbolized the triumph of light over darkness, giving the victory of the winners a religious cast.

Don
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Re: Official HFQ Snippet #24
Post by Keith_w   » Mon May 18, 2015 12:08 pm

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evilauthor wrote:
isaac_newton wrote:Being a nuke, I'm pretty sure that not just the council room would have been effected. From the description of the blast at the start of OAR as seen from the village acress the lake it was not small, and therefore would have removed everyone in the vicinity! maybe up to several kilometers?


Also, the comments about how the current Temple is over-armored suggests that the previous Temple (the one Kau-Yung blew up) was a much flimsier structure... relatively speaking. Likely made out of normal, non-armor materials.

Not to mention that they had were still at war with the "Fallen" or had just finished that war when it was constructed and so had personal safety at the forefront of their thoughts.
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Re: Official HFQ Snippet #24
Post by Tonto Silerheels   » Mon May 18, 2015 4:31 pm

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Kytheros wrote:

Proctor was in Alexandria, I'm pretty sure. And therefore already dead.

I have tried to find evidence that Proctor died in Alexandria, and can't. Where did you see it?

~Tonto
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Re: Official HFQ Snippet #24
Post by Kytheros   » Mon May 18, 2015 5:34 pm

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Tonto Silerheels wrote:Kytheros wrote:

Proctor was in Alexandria, I'm pretty sure. And therefore already dead.

I have tried to find evidence that Proctor died in Alexandria, and can't. Where did you see it?

~Tonto

Proctor was, I believe, on the Alexandria Board (or whatever it was called), and I expect Langhorne timed the OBS strike to get as many of them as possible, assuming he didn't time the strike for the middle of one of their meetings.
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Re: Official HFQ Snippet #24
Post by Keith_w   » Mon May 18, 2015 7:56 pm

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Kytheros wrote:
Tonto Silerheels wrote:Kytheros wrote:

Proctor was in Alexandria, I'm pretty sure. And therefore already dead.

I have tried to find evidence that Proctor died in Alexandria, and can't. Where did you see it?

~Tonto

Proctor was, I believe, on the Alexandria Board (or whatever it was called), and I expect Langhorne timed the OBS strike to get as many of them as possible, assuming he didn't time the strike for the middle of one of their meetings.


On page 49 of OAR (PB) Kau-yung mentions that the only other person who knows about Nimue's PICA will be with him when he sets of the pocket nuke, presumably this is Proctor although the name is not mentioned.
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Re: Official HFQ Snippet #24
Post by n7axw   » Mon May 18, 2015 9:16 pm

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Keith_w wrote:
On page 49 of OAR (PB) Kau-yung mentions that the only other person who knows about Nimue's PICA will be with him when he sets of the pocket nuke, presumably this is Proctor although the name is not mentioned.


You might be right. But I don't see where your presumption is coming from.... Upon what basis do we conjecture on this one way or the other?

Whoever was with Kau-yung could have simply been an aide taken into his confidence. But we really don't know that either...

Don
When any group seeks political power in God's name, both religion and politics are instantly corrupted.
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Re: Official HFQ Snippet #24
Post by Tonto Silerheels   » Mon May 18, 2015 9:54 pm

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n7axw wrote:

You might be right. But I don't see where your presumption is coming from.... Upon what basis do we conjecture on this one way or the other?

You are right. We know that originally five people knew of the plot, Nimue Alban, Pei Kau-yung, Pei Shan-wei, Pei Kau-zhi, and Elias Proctor. We know that at least one person found out later, Jeremiah Knowles. Knowles could have learned of the plot when two of the others were speaking, not including Nimue Alban or Pei Kau-zhi, or he could have learned it when one of them was speaking to a seventh person. We could even postulate an eighth person. We know that, if Elias Proctor was alive on the day the headquarters was destroyed, then it was planned that Proctor would die there, possibly to protect the secret. We're fairly certain that Pei Kau-yung didn't know that Knowles knew. We know that Kau-yung didn't know of any postulated seventh or eithth people. More than that deponent sayeth naught.

~Tonto
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Re: Official HFQ Snippet #24
Post by Kytheros   » Mon May 18, 2015 10:35 pm

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Tonto Silerheels wrote:Kytheros wrote:

Proctor was in Alexandria, I'm pretty sure. And therefore already dead.

I have tried to find evidence that Proctor died in Alexandria, and can't. Where did you see it?

~Tonto

Kytheros wrote:Proctor was, I believe, on the Alexandria Board (or whatever it was called), and I expect Langhorne timed the OBS strike to get as many of them as possible, assuming he didn't time the strike for the middle of one of their meetings.

Keith_w wrote:On page 49 of OAR (PB) Kau-yung mentions that the only other person who knows about Nimue's PICA will be with him when he sets of the pocket nuke, presumably this is Proctor although the name is not mentioned.

I presumed Kau-yung's statement had the implied qualification of "the only other person who is still alive". There would not, after all, be any point in counting Shan-wei, or anyone else who died in the Alexandria Strike. And we know that Nimue's existence was somewhat known amongst at least some of Shan-Wei's supporters in Alexandria, based on the diary of St Zhernau (sp?), who, while he didn't know much, knew a little about the Nimue string of contingency, enough to mention it in his diary.



Proctor was a cyberneticist. I can't point to anything specific offhand, but in my opinion, he most likely was openly aligned with Shan-wei, lived in Alexandria, and then died in the Alexandria Strikes. He is, in my opinion, not the person Kau-yung referred to as the only other person who knew of Nimue's existence.
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Re: Official HFQ Snippet #24
Post by PlaysWithBees   » Mon May 18, 2015 11:41 pm

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Kytheros wrote:
Tonto Silerheels wrote:Kytheros wrote:

Proctor was in Alexandria, I'm pretty sure. And therefore already dead.

I have tried to find evidence that Proctor died in Alexandria, and can't. Where did you see it?

~Tonto

Kytheros wrote:Proctor was, I believe, on the Alexandria Board (or whatever it was called), and I expect Langhorne timed the OBS strike to get as many of them as possible, assuming he didn't time the strike for the middle of one of their meetings.

Keith_w wrote:On page 49 of OAR (PB) Kau-yung mentions that the only other person who knows about Nimue's PICA will be with him when he sets of the pocket nuke, presumably this is Proctor although the name is not mentioned.


I presumed Kau-yung's statement had the implied qualification of "the only other person who is still alive". There would not, after all, be any point in counting Shan-wei, or anyone else who died in the Alexandria Strike. And we know that Nimue's existence was somewhat known amongst at least some of Shan-Wei's supporters in Alexandria, based on the diary of St Zhernau (sp?), who, while he didn't know much, knew a little about the Nimue string of contingency, enough to mention it in his diary.



Proctor was a cyberneticist. I can't point to anything specific offhand, but in my opinion, he most likely was openly aligned with Shan-wei, lived in Alexandria, and then died in the Alexandria Strikes. He is, in my opinion, not the person Kau-yung referred to as the only other person who knew of Nimue's existence.

This is my feeling also, that Proctor died in the Alexandria strike and was a prominent member of her staff thus earning himself the title of "Father of Lies". He was too prominent to likely be allowed into Langhorne's presence after the strike because his loyalty would be suspect.

I believe the mysterious "other" was an aide or such added to the conspiracy after arrival at Safehold. What I'm not sure of is if he was actually present when the nuke went off. He might have been elsewhere in a last minute change of plans...
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Re: Official HFQ Snippet #24
Post by Joat42   » Tue May 19, 2015 5:50 am

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saber964 wrote:IIRC the U.S. has already gotten down to some fairly small nukes. During the 50's the tested a nuke bazooka that had a blast range of four miles, problem was the bazooka only had a range of three miles.


If you are talking about the 3-man portable "Davy Crockett" recoilless gun, it came in 2 variants - the M28 (4") with a range of about 1.3 miles and the M29 (6.1") with a range of about 2.5 miles. Since they both used the same nuclear round they had a max yield of about 20 tons of TNT.

It wasn't particularly accurate since the round tended to wobble a bit because of the small fins and the weight (~75 lb).

It's a bit funny you mentioned this since I saw a documentary last night that showcased this weapon on National Geographic.

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