Whatever happened to Byng's people in New Tuscany?

ldwechsler wrote:

munroburton wrote:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hors_de_combat

Aside from Byng's flagship(which blew up with all hands), that force was pure Frontier Fleet and whilst a figure of 36,000 spacers might look impressive to any individual - the entire SLN has something like 20 to 30 million spacers. Two and a half of which they lost later at Second Manticore(along with half a million at Spindle).

SLN HQ has bigger problems to worry about. Also, those frontier fleet personnel wouldn't be heading back to Sol - they'd go to the nearest major fleet base, or as other posters have said, Meyers. No way the Mandarins would let any of them set foot on Earth or stay in the Sol system.

In any case, I can't imagine many of them are eager to return to Solarian space with Byng's disgrace hanging over them. Imagine being reassigned and their new shipmates finding out they were at New Tuscany. Brr.

I think the navy would be more concerned that they would spread the word on what happened there. After all, the SLN murdered the sailors on three ships without warning. Then they all learned that the navy was totally wrong on the distance for which Mantie missiles were viable. Also, that the Manties only went after the flag ship and did not kill the rest.

Take those thousands of sailors and spread them through the fleet and you would have a public relations disaster.

Byng worked to limit Askew when it was only an analysis. The last thing the navy would want is to have survivors talking to shipmates all through the fleet.

A PR disaster worse than Spindle? Second Manticore? Operation Laocoon's various confrontations? Tenth Fleet's liberation of the entire Meyers sector, which they don't know about yet?

Like I said, SLN HQ has bigger problems. I'll bet that they don't have a precedent or procedure on file for "Retrieving two dozen disabled ships & stranded crew". Meaning some bureaucrat would have to make it up as they went about the task.

On the other hand, we haven't seen much of Frontier Fleet's senior admiral(Kingsford's counterpart). That person could have been quietly making arrangements to sort the New Tuscany loose threads out behind the scenes.

PS: Wow, what happened there? I've never seen a double-post accident get that out of hand!

I think they should be used as bargaining chips as part of a prisoner exchange as well as ensure Carmichael's safety and return as well as any other Beowulfan officers who want out. Same as what Eloise accomplished with Henke.

Getting Byng's people to Meyers would certainly be interesting. Nothing was mentioned in the conversations that Mike had with the Meyer's government nor any indication that they might have arrived before Meyers was freed of OFS.

So if Byng's crews are being transported to Meyers -post liberation of Meyers- by commerical transports (in small batches) they are going to probably end up going into the same camps as the FF/OFS personel after Mike showed up.

Meyers isn't going to want to send them along anywhere. When last seen there was effectivly a starship interdiction against SLN ships that would be showing up there and possibly the same for commercial shipping. That might not be the case for commerical ships but even if you get a couple of thousand (which would be a lot on something other than a troop tranport type ship) dropping in, the charter isn't going to cover taking them someplace further on and the ship is going want to "deliver the cargo per contract" and get on with it's regular business it they aren't going to be detained. If it is a FF/OFS troop transport- well- it isn't going to be going anywhere now and Meyers isn't going to try and keep those people cooped up in troop transport compartments for months. So down they will go to the detention camps and out of the war.

Brigade XO wrote:Getting Byng's people to Meyers would certainly be interesting. Nothing was mentioned in the conversations that Mike had with the Meyer's government nor any indication that they might have arrived before Meyers was freed of OFS.

So if Byng's crews are being transported to Meyers -post liberation of Meyers- by commerical transports (in small batches) they are going to probably end up going into the same camps as the FF/OFS personel after Mike showed up.

Meyers isn't going to want to send them along anywhere. When last seen there was effectivly a starship interdiction against SLN ships that would be showing up there and possibly the same for commercial shipping. That might not be the case for commerical ships but even if you get a couple of thousand (which would be a lot on something other than a troop tranport type ship) dropping in, the charter isn't going to cover taking them someplace further on and the ship is going want to "deliver the cargo per contract" and get on with it's regular business it they aren't going to be detained. If it is a FF/OFS troop transport- well- it isn't going to be going anywhere now and Meyers isn't going to try and keep those people cooped up in troop transport compartments for months. So down they will go to the detention camps and out of the war.

Now I'm imagining their reactions if they were transported to somewhere in the Maya sector before Mike got there.

ThisName1 wrote:

Brigade XO wrote:Getting Byng's people to Meyers would certainly be interesting. Nothing was mentioned in the conversations that Mike had with the Meyer's government nor any indication that they might have arrived before Meyers was freed of OFS.

So if Byng's crews are being transported to Meyers -post liberation of Meyers- by commerical transports (in small batches) they are going to probably end up going into the same camps as the FF/OFS personel after Mike showed up.

Meyers isn't going to want to send them along anywhere. When last seen there was effectivly a starship interdiction against SLN ships that would be showing up there and possibly the same for commercial shipping. That might not be the case for commerical ships but even if you get a couple of thousand (which would be a lot on something other than a troop tranport type ship) dropping in, the charter isn't going to cover taking them someplace further on and the ship is going want to "deliver the cargo per contract" and get on with it's regular business it they aren't going to be detained. If it is a FF/OFS troop transport- well- it isn't going to be going anywhere now and Meyers isn't going to try and keep those people cooped up in troop transport compartments for months. So down they will go to the detention camps and out of the war.

Now I'm imagining their reactions if they were transported to somewhere in the Maya sector before Mike got there.

I think you meant Meyers or possibly Mesa, not Maya. Maya is way over on the other side of the Solarian League (by Erewhon and Torch).

Yup, good catch!

It seems to me that after Laocoon 2 the long warp steps are not available to anyone other than the SEM and its allies. However, from the point of view of the SEM shipping these people back is a fine idea. The returnees may circulate the word on what happened. They make it more likely that the Invincible Solarian League Navy will reactivate -- OK, try to reactivate -- its reserves.

The electronics on Byng's ships need replacement as well as reprogramming. They are fried.