Having said all of that, however, I will also add that I didn't toss the grav lance out there in the very first book without the intention of doing A Little Something with it further down the line. Of course, just exactly what I do with it is for me to know and for you to... well, you get the picture. (Snerk!)
We’ve all heard the stories – all too many times - Us old farts routinely slap down anybody who comes up with a brilliant idea to mount the Grav Lance on a Treecat’s marine armor as casually as if we’re breathing – David’s supposedly so sick of the ideas and silly uses that he’s changed his plans of using TWTSNBN in the future.
But… what was his original plan? and has he really abandoned it?
While reading that infodump, Those thoughts ran through my head again, and I asked myself where the Grav lance could have (or could in the future) be used – The trend in the Honorverse from the beginning of the storyline has moved away from energy range combat, so it’s paradigm is past. The Way David mentions the hardware, the future use seems to be a big deal - what needs THAT much foreshadowing?
Then it hit me – what other weapon system are we trying to piece together with little actual knowledge and find a place for in Combat? The Leonard Detweiler Capitol ships.
What if somehow THEY have TWTSNBN and, in addition to being pod layers with Graser torps, act as assassin ships, sneaking into close range under the spider and use their spider drive (or beta nodes) to knock down sidewalls, seconds before their massive ET batteries rip apart their targets to pieces, then slip away under the spider in the chaos. Their low speed makes that crazy – their drive system makes that improbable…
…but what if?
