What will Admiral Higgins' next command be?

saber964 wrote:No, as far as we know, Higgins is still in command of Home Fleet.

I'd sworn there was textev that Higgins had actually been relieved from Home Fleet command. He was merely a placeholder CO, when Honor went to take Eighth Fleet off to Haven for the initial peacetalks.

And then technically, Honor retook Home Fleet command, which was renamed to Grand Fleet, for the Filareta confrontation. Eighth Fleet was too small for the "home fleet, non-hyper" portion of confronting Filareta, so there HAD to be Home Fleet attached. But Home Fleet is THE premier Manticoran fleet, and it's CO is the highest rank. Honor was in command of the Grand Fleet, like you said, but Higgins would have out-ranked her by being Home Fleet CO, so he was shunted aside for political reasons.

But Higgins was not specifically stated to be back in command, after Filareta was crushed, so he is in a limbo status.

Higgins was never relieved from Home Fleet command. He was put on half-pay upon his retreat from Grendelsbane station, pending an enquiry. That enquiry absolved him of any blame and he took command of Home Fleet after it was rebuilt and Eighth Fleet went back to being Eighth Fleet.

Honor was the placeholder Home Fleet CO you're thinking of.

Nobody got fired over the Oyster Bay attack. Many people tried to resign, but were refused. Even Caparelli tried twice and Elizabeth wrote back "Don't be silly." or something to that effect.

When Grand Fleet was formed, Home Fleet joined it as an intact command. Higgins was presumably still in command. That was the political element at play - to prevent placing Havenite units under a Manticoran formation, they had to operate Tourville's new fleet as a co-equal to Home Fleet. And the Grayson Home Fleet and Protector's Own. The normal rules didn't even exist for this situation - they're making them up as they go.

Somtaaw wrote:

roseandheather wrote:Sorry, the good Admiral will be unavailable for all of the above. He's been reassigned to my bedroom for the foreseeable future.

-snip-I could even get on board with him romancing Genevieve Chin, since I haven't come up with a character who isn't me with whom I'd prefer him.

I'm still waiting to see Mr. Weber to just put you in the books rose, some until-now unspoken of Commodore or thereabouts, with a good track record, and so on and so forth. Let's just get it over with, rose belongs in the books so she can make mad, mad love to Higgins and go be Manticoran/Haven straddling officers.

*flees into some dark hole like a Sphinxian chipmunk*

...I'm sorry, are you actually expecting me to object to this proposition? Because if so, you might need your head examined.

Seriously. I'm sitting here muttering "Oh God please" under my breath and trying not to wake my flatmate's dog with the excited squeaking noises.

munroburton wrote:Higgins was never relieved from Home Fleet command. He was put on half-pay upon his retreat from Grendelsbane station, pending an enquiry. That enquiry absolved him of any blame and he took command of Home Fleet after it was rebuilt and Eighth Fleet went back to being Eighth Fleet.

Honor was the placeholder Home Fleet CO you're thinking of.

Nobody got fired over the Oyster Bay attack. Many people tried to resign, but were refused. Even Caparelli tried twice and Elizabeth wrote back "Don't be silly." or something to that effect.

When Grand Fleet was formed, Home Fleet joined it as an intact command. Higgins was presumably still in command. That was the political element at play - to prevent placing Havenite units under a Manticoran formation, they had to operate Tourville's new fleet as a co-equal to Home Fleet. And the Grayson Home Fleet and Protector's Own. The normal rules didn't even exist for this situation - they're making them up as they go.

It's dollars to doughnuts that Higgins tried to resign - probably repeatedly - and got laughed out of the room by every superior he tried it on, from the Queen right on down the line. My poor baby.

roseandheather wrote:It's dollars to doughnuts that Higgins tried to resign - probably repeatedly - and got laughed out of the room by every superior he tried it on, from the Queen right on down the line. My poor baby.

And think about the guys commanding the orbital fortresses, which had too little time do do anything despite being in the right place at the right time.

Even assuming that Higgins isn't still holding down Home Fleet, there are quite a few groundside slots for Admirals besides the 7 Space Lords. Possibly as many as 10, although I suspect that that's a bit high: several of the Bureaus have functional Commands attached, but some, like Perimeter Security, are likely to be VAdm slots.

roseandheather wrote:

munroburton wrote:Higgins was never relieved from Home Fleet command. He was put on half-pay upon his retreat from Grendelsbane station, pending an enquiry. That enquiry absolved him of any blame and he took command of Home Fleet after it was rebuilt and Eighth Fleet went back to being Eighth Fleet.

Honor was the placeholder Home Fleet CO you're thinking of.

Nobody got fired over the Oyster Bay attack. Many people tried to resign, but were refused. Even Caparelli tried twice and Elizabeth wrote back "Don't be silly." or something to that effect.

When Grand Fleet was formed, Home Fleet joined it as an intact command. Higgins was presumably still in command. That was the political element at play - to prevent placing Havenite units under a Manticoran formation, they had to operate Tourville's new fleet as a co-equal to Home Fleet. And the Grayson Home Fleet and Protector's Own. The normal rules didn't even exist for this situation - they're making them up as they go.

It's dollars to doughnuts that Higgins tried to resign - probably repeatedly - and got laughed out of the room by every superior he tried it on, from the Queen right on down the line. My poor baby.

Uh, Higgins would only qualify for 6 of the 7 Space Lords. He would be unable to be Seventh Space Lord who headed Bureau of Medicine which was held by a physician and was also Surgeon General of the SEM/SKM.

Higgins might not want another space command but my guess is he would serve where he was asked to serve. Neither Grendelsbane, Oyster Bay, nor 1st Manticore were his "fault" and he did what was possible. Not required to die trying and his position during 1st Manticore didn't put him in that situation.

Having said that, it is possible that he might be considered somewhat unlucky even if he did the best right thing each time. Should he be he be given a spaceborn command again (after his tour in Home Fleet, the Queen should have gathered a few people who consistantly think outside the box and have them brainstorm about the potential ways that Murphy could show up to light that third match (Oyster Bay doesn't count) on Higgins. From what we can see he didn't EVER do anything stupid, nor slipshod, nor take shortcuts, nor shrink from doing what should and needed to be done either before nor durring the engagements he had thrust upon him.
Give the man some deep backstop help and set people to finding and fixing things that may be working just fine but are possibly covering gaps in what should be well covered. A third time may well kill him of a broken heart and spirit if it donsn't get him vaporized. He doen'nt deserve that.

Since ADM Hemphill is on her way to Bolthole, and therefore probably not in command of Weapons Bureau. That would be a good place for someone with lots of unconventional "shooter's perspective".

kenl511 wrote:Since ADM Hemphill is on her way to Bolthole, and therefore probably not in command of Weapons Bureau. That would be a good place for someone with lots of unconventional "shooter's perspective".

who said hemphill was no longer in charge of weapons bureau?

since weapons bureau was at wayland which no longer exists, it has to move somewhere. Why not move weapons bureau to bolthole lock, stock and barrel.