Alfred Harrington back to the colours?

saber964 wrote:

Jonathan_S wrote:And even back in OBS the CL Fearless, with a crew of 385, only carried 1 doctor, 1 PA, and some sick berth attendants (more than 4, probably 8-12).

Actually Fearless carried two MD's. Dr's. Suchon and Montoya and probably 6-8 SBA's with 2-3 serving as corpsman with the Marines.

Montoya was a PA during On Basilisk Station.

On Basilisk Station: Ch 10 wrote:"Captain, I don't think it's a good idea to— I mean, you've detached Lieutenant Montoya and all four of my best sick berth attendants to the customs parties, and I need them here in Fearless. I can't guarantee my ability to meet my medical responsibilities to the ship without them."
Suchon leaned back in her chair as she completed her sentence. There was a certain smugness in her expression, the look of someone who has just delivered an ultimatum to a superior officer, and Honor regarded her levelly for several seconds.
"I'm afraid you're just going to have to get along without them, Doctor," she said at last, and Suchon sat back upright with a jerk.
"But I can't! If I have to detach them, the sickbay workload will be impossible, and Montoya is my sole physician assistant!"

So one MD, one PA, and several SBAs.

Well as mentioned, Alfred Harrington is a neurosurgeon, who seems to be just about THE name for artificial limbs, and recovery from disrupter weaponry (which is also the basis for why he switched from combat arms to medical in the first place).


Unless Mesa/MAlign combat degenerates into them using disrupters instead of pulsers, which means very very short-ranged combat because disrupters have very little range and then only against unarmored/skinsuited enemies. An enemy inside of power armor is effectively invulnerable to disrupter armed hostiles, meanwhile with his weapons would be tearing them apart.

Even with disrupter armed enemies, Alfred would be next to useless, even if he had "boots on the ground" and was right beside the guy who got hit... again, the same short story which told us how Alfred and Allison became a couple, gave us the range of disrupters, also tells us how nearly instant death from disrupter is, and there's virtually zero chance of recovery.


So even if he were in the field, next to people he can't help them... which leaves him as a doctor helping troops who lost limbs receive artificial limbs (assuming they can't regen like Honor), and/or the cases like Emily Alexander and are nearly totally crippled (as stated by Allison, that Alfred would very likely have been Emily's doc if he were a civilian then).


The best way Alfred would be contributing, would be staying on Manticore, and/or Bassingford, and continuing to do exactly what he already was. Or even returning to Grayson and doing his neurosurgeon-y stuff there, helping Grayson's not be as impaired from their planet and their genie origins.

I think the Doctors skills could be used better if he stays out of the millitary per say but remains close at hand doing what he does best to protect close individuals surrounding and including the Harrington family.

I don't see the need to put this 90 year old man back in uniform when; 1) the Talbot Sector is coming into the Star Empire with its' contribution to manpower (not THE MANPOWER) needs and 2) the trend in Alliance ship building has been to smaller crew sizes and 3)the treaty with the Republic of Haven with the extra clout they will pick up after the new missile facilities come on line at Bolt Hole.

I would like to see a continuation of this story line but am already walking the floor waiting for Hell's Foundations Quiver and it seems to me that my interests alone are putting a 24/7 demand on David's creative time.

I hope that David has many more years of health and happiness in his family so there will be no distractions and, I am delighted that he has taken on a few co-authors to work around the edges of his universes.


Just my two cents

Spitfire80 wrote:So in one of the short stories, we are shown Alfred Harrington, being capable of advanced levels of mayhem. As i understand it, while a marine he witnessed some bad things, which made him switch to the medical track, but when Ally, was in trouble, he turned back into that marine, and tore the crap out of those SOB's.

Skip ahead a large number of years, and he is one of the best in his medical field and has an older daughter capable of even more mayhem aparently. And his Star Nation is at war, with the single largest Star Nation, known to humanity.

I imagine that at some point the reserves are being called up, and the military tries to recruit as many able bodied men and women as possible. Possibly even calling up those that left the various services honourably. (As i understand has happened in various wars up until now, in RL)

I find myself wondering if they would reach out to the elder Harrington. As good as he is, he would be an asset on one of the medical ships in a fleet support train. Or if he might not offer to go himself, after what happened to his family he might want to get some of his own back.

Anyway, what do you guys think?

Personally, i think it would be cool if he went. But that's just me.

Here's what I see Alfred doing over the next few years. Working with researchers at places like LUM and ISU, with unlimited access to research and design specifications of Mesan neural disruptors and whips they come up with a way to lessen the damage caused by the technology and eventually come up with a way to reverse it.

saber964 wrote:Here's what I see Alfred doing over the next few years. Working with researchers at places like LUM and ISU, with unlimited access to research and design specifications of Mesan neural disruptors and whips they come up with a way to lessen the damage caused by the technology and eventually come up with a way to reverse it.

Well Mesan neural disrupters and whips are 100% useless against any Marine in combat powered armor.

And with all the reductions in crew, and Marines aboard all Manticoran ships, plus the alliance with Haven now... it might be possible to start having 100% of Marines aboard ship having a set of powered armor in addition to their armored skinsuits. Deployment of either would then be based on the missions needs.


Skinsuits was something that was generally done planetside, rather than aboard even a station like Hephaestus, which put it outside of anything that Oyster Bay would have hit. And Havenite production lines were never touched, in addition to being just as good as anything Manticore ever had (or possibly better, from the evidence with Honor on Hades/Cerberus).


That's one possibility anyways, to just fully equip all Marines, which are still the shocktroops of the Honorverse, who take and create 'secure' landing zones for the regular Army units that follow later. Unless something changed between the love-story of Alfred and Allison, and current (so what, approximately 30-50 T-years?) neural disrupters were absolutely lethal and no amount of medical attention will save you.

Not bad, however I see him and Allison cracking the nut that prevents Honor and Emily (among others) from regenerating and perhaps, if DW is feeling adventurousness, working up the nerve clusters that make Tree Cats telepathic so there can be more complete communication.

Just my two cents

saber964 wrote:Here's what I see Alfred doing over the next few years. Working with researchers at places like LUM and ISU, with unlimited access to research and design specifications of Mesan neural disruptors and whips they come up with a way to lessen the damage caused by the technology and eventually come up with a way to reverse it.

C. O. Thompson wrote:Not bad, however I see him and Allison cracking the nut that prevents Honor and Emily (among others) from regenerating and perhaps, if DW is feeling adventurousness, working up the nerve clusters that make Tree Cats telepathic so there can be more complete communication.

Just my two cents

saber964 wrote:Here's what I see Alfred doing over the next few years. Working with researchers at places like LUM and ISU, with unlimited access to research and design specifications of Mesan neural disruptors and whips they come up with a way to lessen the damage caused by the technology and eventually come up with a way to reverse it.

From their constant use in foreplay, Beowulfans are immune to neural whips.

"You will do as I say!...CRACK! "

"Yes Mistress!"

Like hot sauce. Some like it hot. Some like it not.

lol

Somtaaw wrote:

saber964 wrote:Here's what I see Alfred doing over the next few years. Working with researchers at places like LUM and ISU, with unlimited access to research and design specifications of Mesan neural disruptors and whips they come up with a way to lessen the damage caused by the technology and eventually come up with a way to reverse it.

Well Mesan neural disrupters and whips are 100% useless against any Marine in combat powered armor.

And with all the reductions in crew, and Marines aboard all Manticoran ships, plus the alliance with Haven now... it might be possible to start having 100% of Marines aboard ship having a set of powered armor in addition to their armored skinsuits. Deployment of either would then be based on the missions needs.


Skinsuits was something that was generally done planetside, rather than aboard even a station like Hephaestus, which put it outside of anything that Oyster Bay would have hit. And Havenite production lines were never touched, in addition to being just as good as anything Manticore ever had (or possibly better, from the evidence with Honor on Hades/Cerberus).


That's one possibility anyways, to just fully equip all Marines, which are still the shocktroops of the Honorverse, who take and create 'secure' landing zones for the regular Army units that follow later. Unless something changed between the love-story of Alfred and Allison, and current (so what, approximately 30-50 T-years?) neural disrupters were absolutely lethal and no amount of medical attention will save you.

Just a little note, battle armor is too expensive to equip a large number of troops with them. They are the Honorverse version of a MBT without hauling around one. They usually make up about 25% of any marine unit. The RMA has MBT's but probably not that many of them.

Honourvere has tanks?!

going to have to start anew thread to discuss that