OrlandoNative wrote:Ok, I'll bite. Just where from (and when) did these 600 SD's come to Tasmania? Remember, the discussion towards the last of ART between Doud, Teague, and the rest in the records storage room *doesn't* mention YET ANOTHER large fleet assembly outside the Core - it specifically mentions Crandall in the Meyers sector and Filareta's in the Tasmanian sector *only* as the only *recent* large deployments in the last 200 T-years or so.
Filareta's fleet of 400+ SD's *CAME* from Tasmania. It would seem to me that if there were an *additional* 600 SD's there, he would have just brought them along - if only as insurance. Especially if Tsang really was supposed to force her fleet through the Junction. It would make no sense keeping back so many ships so far from the target.
The 600 were arriving at Tasmania after Filareta's 11th Fleet had departed from there. Rajampet was able to preposition dozens of squadrons on that side of the League's core. And from the start, they planned to send them in two separate waves, using the 600 to bolster 11th Fleet against any RMN forces returning to Manticore after its conquest.
As to the disposition of the League's fleets, clearly there is a maximum of ten(Filarta's being designated the Eleventh). There is also textev of half a dozen Reserve depots, logically also serving as fleet bases, in addition to the Sol system's Hyperion base. Suggests to me the minimum is seven fleets(not counting Filareta's), with wiggle room for up to three more used for administrative purposes(eg. RMN 5th Fleet is Logistics Command according to HoS).
All six depots are almost certainly within one month's travel of Sol. Beowulf is about 2 weeks out. The window of vulnerability Honor was worrying about was two months. Granted, there will be delays involved in getting the movement orders transmitted, but by now the entire SLN is at DefCon 1, so they should be quicker off the mark than Filareta was. My guess is that Tsang's force was assembled with detachments from Sol and the nearest two or three depots. Either that or it's basically half the Sol Home Fleet.
The numbers talked about by Battle Fleet's commanding officer for their active units were around two thousand, possibly after Spindle, but definitely before 2nd Manticore. On the other hand, a tiny minority of the Reserve is also going to be relatively modern(for the SLN) newbuilds which they could commission and integrate into current fleets without refitting, as futile as that would be.
I think Tasmania is a Frontier Fleet base which has been temporarily appropriated by Battle Fleet. No doubt its facilities are completely overwhelmed(at least they're not faced with repairing damaged units!), but Filareta's fleet train was quite substantial and the other units are probably self-sufficient for at least six months.
There's also been no indications whatsover that the Mandarins or Battle Fleet is planning to attack Beowulf. Kingsford was explict to Kolokoltsev about the impossibility of a successful military attack against GA wallers and Kolokeltsev talked his fellow Mandarins into leaving Beowulf alone whilst taking a hardline stance against
other secessionists.
So I'm thinking those Beowulfan deaths are going to be the results of a grudge attack by the Alignment. The spider ship made its translation months ago, tossed a few kinetic impactors towards Beowulf and quietly left.
For that matter, could not a freighter or dispatch boat deploy KEWs from a parking orbit or even while outbound? How many other enemies within the League has Beowulf made? We're not going to get those answers for a while.
