Notes from Weber--SPOILER WARNING!!!

munroburton wrote: 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.

Hutch wrote:So I am at Liberty Con in Chattanooga (2 hr drive for me), where the MWW is the Writer Guest of Honor (and Eric Flint is here with the 1632 Mini-con). DW had a session of "Weber Talks" (not what it was called, but that is what we got), where he held forth on a variety of topics, most have little to do with the Honorverse (but we did get his take on Islam, history thereof). But in the last 5 minutes of the session, he did let several things slip.

So I repeat again..SPOILER WARNING!! If you read past here and then say "Awww, I didn't want to know that now, tough patooties...You Have Been Warned.

Also, I'd ask that you take care not to drop this out of the thread except with Spoiler warnings....the way DW talked we won't see anything from Honor in 2015 and if there is anything in 2016, it'll be later than sooner, so let's be careful about spoiling anything for folks who don't like to know ahead of time.

That said.....




* House of LIes is taking longer than planned, both due to the MWW writing schedule and Bu9's ability to get together and hash out the detail work. He has not started his novelette for House of Lies yet, but he did reveal....

*...That it was supposed to be about the DuQuense plan and Mesan involvement with same, but that instead he currently plans to write two shorter novelettes focusing on the lives and times of Thomas Theisman and Eloise Prichart as they go from the Legislaturist Era to the Rob Pierre/Oscar St. Just era and ending the Tom asks Eloise to take over the Government.

(And no, I take no responsibility for any seismic shifts caused by rose-n-heather's reaction to this news.)


SNIP

--Eloise and Emperess Elizabeth are going to forge even closer ties between Haven and Manticore, by giving citizenship in one polity the same recognition in the other (i.e., if a Manticorian moves to a Havenite system, he will be treated the same as if he was a Havenite, and visa versa for Havenites in the SEM. He hasn't decided yet if the fleets will be merged or be more like a NATO-type relationship, but the pattern will be to ensure that whatever comes in the future, Haven and Manticore will face it together...as friends and allies.

(somebody please check on rose-n-heather's BP)

SNIP

Remember. "SPOILERS" if you use this information in other threads...or try to keep the conversation on this one.

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.

Also, allegedly there were about 3000 SD's in current status, the rest were mothballed in the Reserve. Putting 1/3 of the currently available ships in *one* location; considering the size of the League and all the potential volume that needed coverage, just in case, makes no sense. 300 or 400, maybe. 1000? No. The percentage is too high. Given that Tasmania isn't even in the Core, and, probably somewhere in the outer Shell, it's unlikely the system even *has* enough infrastructure to support so many ships for any significant length of time; even if it were a dedicated fleet base. Even Grendelsbane, the Manty fleet base system, only had about 90 SD's under construction or repair, and virtually none for defensive purposes, when the "Peeps" launched Thunderbolt. Given the SLN hasn't been on a war footing like Manticore and Haven have, it's unlikely outlying fleet bases have large numbers of SD's. Battlecruisers and smaller craft, maybe, but probably not even hundreds of them at any one time.

As for Tsang's ships, we don't actually know where they came from, or where they went to after leaving Beowulf's near space. 100 wallers would probably need a significant support structure. Given that Beowulf is a core world, it's *reasonable* that some SLN base system is at least somewhat nearby, but that's never been explicitly said.

Even Beowulf itself only built and supports 36 SD's. No doubt they could build - and support - more; but probably not without significant impact to their civilian infrastructure. Even Manticore, Haven, and the Andermani didn't build their large fleets in a single system or at a single base. Grayson did, but *they* only managed about 50-60 units.

So it's more likely that larger fleets of SD's are supported by systems that were explicitly developed as fleet bases, similar to Haven's "Bolthole".

n7axw wrote:I think there is a hint somewhere in David's posts to suggest that the MAlign's attack on Beowulf would be bioweapons, rather than a conventional missile attack.

Don

Somtaaw wrote:

n7axw wrote:I think there is a hint somewhere in David's posts to suggest that the MAlign's attack on Beowulf would be bioweapons, rather than a conventional missile attack.

Don

A bioweapon actually sort of makes sense, given the MAligns long-term hatred of the Beowulf bio-sciences code, and the general human "anti-genie" mindset.

Some form of weaponised infection, similar to that awful plot from the first X-men movie with Magneto planning to force evolution onto the world leaders, etc etc.

small, deliverable by Sharks, and as far as we know Beowulf has nothing like the exquisitely sensitive scanner arrays that guard both Haven and Manticore, so a Shark squadron may not even be detected exiting hyper at a few light -weeks.