A certain RMN Officer...

Theemile wrote:

Dafmeister wrote:
I'm not sure if Chin's ship managed to hyper out before the missiles started detonating - I think she just got lucky and her ship survived long enough to hyper out.

As to how she managed to be back in PRH service in Fanatic having surrendered in SVW, that's never been resolved by RFC so far as I know. I have two theories:

1) Most of Chin's force surrendered, but a handful of ships (including the flagship) managed to hold of Admiral Danislav's dreadnaughts long enough to get across the hyper limit.

2) Eric Flint made a mistake when writing Fanatic and forgot that the last we heard of Admiral Chin was her surrender at Hancock, RFC and Baen's editors didn't catch it before publication and it's too late to retcon it now.

No, it was mentioned in Fanatic how she survived. The fact that her superior ordered her into the system and abandoned her partially covered her - she actually fought and was winning (despite heavy, disproportionate losses) before she was jumped by an DN force twice her size and her superior officer with 3 SD squadrons at his disposal ran instead of coming to her aid. Her orders saved her life, but her career was on the skids until the 1st war was over.

Actually There was some more on it in AAC as well - the Legislaturalists blamed the failure of the whole arm of the attack on her initial failure, and the Committee of Public Safety reversed that finding, blaming her Superiors instead, and "Rehabilitated" Chin - though she was never trusted, her skills were needed after the Legislaturalists were purged.

exiledtoIA wrote:

Dauntless wrote:brain freeze. who is Alan higgins?

I recognise the name but can't remember where we saw him or what happened.

He also blew up a small fleets worth of Manticore naval vessels.
They were under construction at the time.

NEVER SPEAK TO ME OF THAT SCENE AGAIN

Theemile wrote:

JeffEngel wrote:I think she was busy holding regions - including possibly La Martine - for the Constitutional government during the civil war, while Giscard and Tourville whomped on the rebels/StateSec holdouts.

Her name doesn't come up in WoH - then again, neither does the names of the admirals of 1/2 the Havenite taskforces of Thunderbolt, including Grendelsbane. So who knows...

Right. It's a conjecture, based on her status in "Fanatic" and recollections in AAC and the general state of affairs in WoH. It's logically possible that she was for most of that time (e.g.) on Mesa having a torrid affair with Albrecht Detweiler that went without mention otherwise, but I'm pegging my conjecture as one of the more conservative guesses.

BrightSoul wrote:Rose is on point with the Abigail/Oversteegen connection. Much better match for him than Michelle.

Besides, Westman is my favorite Talbotter and he satisfies the "Marry a Commoner" thingy in the constitution

BrightSoul wrote:Mike Henke is perhaps the easiest to ship. There is only one credible candidate. Steven Westman, hopefully General Steven Westman of the Quadrant Guard, is the perfect foil for the Countess. He's also a wealthy commoner so he fits the constitutional succession requirements should she end up on the throne.

both of you mentioned the 'marry a commoner' rule in the constitution and while I can't find it quickly I swear RFC elaborated on that in one of the threads here.

Best I recall It only applies to the current heir (or maybe to them and the current monarch). Anyone further down the line of succession is free to marry a noble. And if something happens and they end up as heir, or monarch, that constitutional requirement isn't applicable. They can remain married to thei spouse from the nobility.

(Guess that reduces the chances of a romantic tragedy being forced by the rules of succession. Though I guess you could still have an engagement ruined last minute if someone dies and you got promoted to heir before your wedding)


So you all aren't restricted to just match-making Mike with commoners

Jonathan_S wrote:

BrightSoul wrote:Rose is on point with the Abigail/Oversteegen connection. Much better match for him than Michelle.

Besides, Westman is my favorite Talbotter and he satisfies the "Marry a Commoner" thingy in the constitution

BrightSoul wrote:Mike Henke is perhaps the easiest to ship. There is only one credible candidate. Steven Westman, hopefully General Steven Westman of the Quadrant Guard, is the perfect foil for the Countess. He's also a wealthy commoner so he fits the constitutional succession requirements should she end up on the throne.

both of you mentioned the 'marry a commoner' rule in the constitution and while I can't find it quickly I swear RFC elaborated on that in one of the threads here.

Best I recall It only applies to the current heir (or maybe to them and the current monarch). Anyone further down the line of succession is free to marry a noble. And if something happens and they end up as heir, or monarch, that constitutional requirement isn't applicable. They can remain married to thei spouse from the nobility.

(Guess that reduces the chances of a romantic tragedy being forced by the rules of succession. Though I guess you could still have an engagement ruined last minute if someone dies and you got promoted to heir before your wedding)


So you all aren't restricted to just match-making Mike with commoners

Mike's mother(Duchess Winton-Henke, sister of King Roger III) married an Earl. Thereby proving that the commoner-as-spouse requirement only applies to the monarch and the immediate heir.

It is possible there's a "firstborn and firstborn of the firstborn" arrangement, which would exempt the other children.

Theemile wrote:
Nobody important, Just a Manticorian Admiral who happened to be commanding Grendlesbane during Thunderbolt and Home Fleet during Oyster Bay.

lol thanks. I knew I recognised his name from somewhere.

so this is the bloke some of you want to setup with Geneivive Chin? seems a bit unfair on her. she's got enough bad luck following her without adding his karmic debt to hers.

Dauntless wrote:

Theemile wrote:
Nobody important, Just a Manticorian Admiral who happened to be commanding Grendlesbane during Thunderbolt and Home Fleet during Oyster Bay.

lol thanks. I knew I recognised his name from somewhere.

so this is the bloke some of you want to setup with Geneivive Chin? seems a bit unfair on her. she's got enough bad luck following her without adding his karmic debt to hers.

You know, If Eric Flint or John Ringo wanted to run with it (it's not really David's style), a day in the life of Adm. Higgens would be a hilarious little short story. Along the lines of Chin at the party I mentioned earlier - He gets back to Manticore from the mind Numbing trek back from Grendelsbane to find a paycheck didn't get processed correctly, so his aircar payment bounced and it got repossessed, His apartment got burned in a fire, etc. etc.

Of course the day would end with an anxiety ridden summons to the Royal Palace.... and finally a hug from the Monarch to a subject who did got caught in the universe's crosshairs and did everything he could to keep total defeat at bay.

Really, I wouldn't be surprised if there hasn't been a Grayson "Classical Music" (ahem... C&W) song about Higgens. Of course if they did make one, His aircar would have had a truck bed, and he would have lost his dog as well.

Dauntless wrote:

Theemile wrote:
Nobody important, Just a Manticorian Admiral who happened to be commanding Grendlesbane during Thunderbolt and Home Fleet during Oyster Bay.

lol thanks. I knew I recognised his name from somewhere.

so this is the bloke some of you want to setup with Geneivive Chin? seems a bit unfair on her. she's got enough bad luck following her without adding his karmic debt to hers.

The idea is that they can certainly understand one another, and both of them need a little kindness out of the universe.

Theemile wrote:You know, If Eric Flint or John Ringo wanted to run with it (it's not really David's style), a day in the life of Adm. Higgens would be a hilarious little short story. Along the lines of Chin at the party I mentioned earlier - He gets back to Manticore from the mind Numbing trek back from Grendelsbane to find a paycheck didn't get processed correctly, so his aircar payment bounced and it got repossessed, His apartment got burned in a fire, etc. etc.

Of course the day would end with an anxiety ridden summons to the Royal Palace.... and finally a hug from the Monarch to a subject who did got caught in the universe's crosshairs and did everything he could to keep total defeat at bay.

Really, I wouldn't be surprised if there hasn't been a Grayson "Classical Music" (ahem... C&W) song about Higgens. Of course if they did make one, His aircar would have had a truck bed, and he would have lost his dog as well.

So Higgins would basically be Webers version of Joe Buckley in Ringo's Posverse. takes the first gen suits into battle, survives a nuke going off practically in his face, an entire starship landing on his head, and years of combat on another planet. Goes back to Earth to recover from PTSD, ends up having to lead yet another unit of greenhorns, and ends up wishing he had a suit before presumably dying.

Then to top it off, by the damned Frogs nipped in and stole his mind, and used it as the template for an entire new generation of PDA's.


I know Baen seems to like beating on Buckley, but Weber has substituted Higgins in his place.

Somtaaw wrote:

Theemile wrote:You know, If Eric Flint or John Ringo wanted to run with it (it's not really David's style), a day in the life of Adm. Higgens would be a hilarious little short story. Along the lines of Chin at the party I mentioned earlier - He gets back to Manticore from the mind Numbing trek back from Grendelsbane to find a paycheck didn't get processed correctly, so his aircar payment bounced and it got repossessed, His apartment got burned in a fire, etc. etc.

Of course the day would end with an anxiety ridden summons to the Royal Palace.... and finally a hug from the Monarch to a subject who did got caught in the universe's crosshairs and did everything he could to keep total defeat at bay.

Really, I wouldn't be surprised if there hasn't been a Grayson "Classical Music" (ahem... C&W) song about Higgens. Of course if they did make one, His aircar would have had a truck bed, and he would have lost his dog as well.

So Higgins would basically be Webers version of Joe Buckley in Ringo's Posverse. takes the first gen suits into battle, survives a nuke going off practically in his face, an entire starship landing on his head, and years of combat on another planet. Goes back to Earth to recover from PTSD, ends up having to lead yet another unit of greenhorns, and ends up wishing he had a suit before presumably dying.

Then to top it off, by the damned Frogs nipped in and stole his mind, and used it as the template for an entire new generation of PDA's.


I know Baen seems to like beating on Buckley, but Weber has substituted Higgins in his place.

No, he hasn't. Joe Buckley was a hyper physicist who got killed in the early days of the honorverse. Since then, half a dozen ships have been named for him and many were destroyed in accidents or simply disappeared.