Eridani Edict Violation of the most Dismissive Kind...

drothgery wrote:

cthia wrote:Simply to replace pappilon's link to point to something.

Yeah, I know I need to finish the next chapters of my stories; I'm not RFC, I get paid for programming, not writing...

cthia wrote:Quite a few people in the forum propose that the MAlign technology is a somewhat empty threat. They believe that the Lenny Dets and Sharks are simply a one-off threat of a one hit wonder that won't compare to the GA. Although I for one do not share this notion that RFC will deliver another foe that is simply cannon fodder for the GA, I suppose it could be true.

However, if it is true that what the MA has sitting unfinished in their building slips and the accompanying tech will fall short of what is needed, then no one else should be more aware of that than the MA themselves. The MA are not as tech green as the SLN. And knowing that they are and will be outclassed even when they complete their ships seems to me an indication that they should go back to the drawing board and or delay the GA's developments as much as they can.

Perhaps another sneak attack by their ships would not be prudent, but that does not mean any other type of an attack isn't. Hence, the projected Beowulf deaths -- for whatever Machiavellian reason like say, the killing of key Manticorans that happen to be in the system causing cataclysmic collateral damage, perhaps, by unleashing the full force of nanite warfare. Or some other unforeseen attack for whatever reasons.

Far into the future when the MA hypers out of hiding offering a new course to humanity, its diplomacy must be supported by force. Diplomacy rolls off the tongue very flat if there is no promise of bite in the words. The support and promise of force gives true meaning to diplomacy.

Which is why I support the notion of a worthy opponent for Harrington's offspring to tame. After all, the MA aren't idiots. On the contrary, they toy with idiots.

pappilon wrote:Right now, the invisibility drive is a one trick pony that will last until Simoes and the R&D gang can find some way to detect the drive. The MA is well aware of and wary of the tech edge the GA holds. They're playing the long game and are willing to wait until they can come close to parity with SEM's tech before taking them on.

Jonathan_S wrote:

pappilon wrote:Right now, the invisibility drive is a one trick pony that will last until Simoes and the R&D gang can find some way to detect the drive. The MA is well aware of and wary of the tech edge the GA holds. They're playing the long game and are willing to wait until they can come close to parity with SEM's tech before taking them on.

I doubt David is going to let the RMN develop an all seeing Spider detector. It'll probably, at least initially, be more like early sonar - it removes the complete invisibility of a (submerged) submarine. But it's short ranged, finicky, and impractical to get total coverage with.

It make the stealthy ships mostly avoid harbors, but it's very hard to protect 100% of your ships and infrastructure 100% of the time. (And if the detector is an active one, that has to broadcast to see the drive being used, then the Spider ships can make fairly informed decisions about working their way around it)


Their life gets riskier, but we're probably talking late WWI riskier, not late WWII, much less late Cold War with SOSUS, air dropped sonibouys, helicopters, not to mention screening SSNs.

Brigade XO wrote:The Mannerheim SDF doesn't have any LD's. From the story line, the eventual public RF is supposed to be a rally point for the fragments of the SL but with more or less conventional weapons. They may or may not have the Cataphracts now but if they do, and use them where reports of them get back to someone like RMN or RHN or Maya, they might come under suspision of being linked to the MA. Why? Because it is truly not clear where the Cataphracts are comming from. Filerta was questioning the source of all those Cataphract pods he was sent. While the SLN is now getting at least two version of the weapons (ship launched and pod) it isn't clear where or by whom they are being manufactured. If it really is Technodyne then somebody should know that and someone else , like Beowulf or Maya or perhaps Erwhon's ONI should have that bit of information because they-except Erwhon- were tied into the SLN information system and would want background and information on this new missile the SLN has fielded. It is NOT Mesa doing the manufacturing and that will be clear when Mike gets settled into the system.
The first navy or SDF to use anything close to the Spider drive where it becomes public is going to get really close attention from Manticore, Haven, Grayson (who would like to apply a Test to them) and a few other people.
The intent of the RF was to be a focal point for gathering SL fragments and suborning them into the Alighments plans, but doing it quietly while being an otherwise normal group of systems that gathered together for self defence and are willing to help others that want to join them- with the conventional weapons available withing the reach of the SL.

n7axw wrote:You are right that we don't know where the Catapharacts are coming from, but if I were betting, I would say Technodyne out of Yildun.

We don't know that Technodyne has manufacturing capability on Mesa, but we do know that Technodyne has offices there and is represented on Mesa's BOD.

Weird Harold wrote:

n7axw wrote:You are right that we don't know where the Catapharacts are coming from, but if I were betting, I would say Technodyne out of Yildun.

We don't know that Technodyne has manufacturing capability on Mesa, but we do know that Technodyne has offices there and is represented on Mesa's BOD.

Probably NOT out of Yildun. At least not originally. Technodyne might be producing the Cataphracts at Yildun now, but both of the first appearances of Cataphracts can be traced directly to Mesa.

The People's Navy in Exile was organized, funded and equipped by Manpower, and they were the first to use Cataphracts. A large portion of the PNE was captured after the Battle of Torch and is sequestered on a prison island on Torch. I'm sure that Adm Roschak's minions and Torch's intelligence weenies have thoroughly debriefed them. Victor and Anton approached that situation from the Mesa end on their first visit to Mesa.

Adm Filareta was the second beneficiary of Cataphract production; purportedly provided by TIY but shipped from Mesa. Adm Filareta remarks that TIY doesn't have any production facilities there, but IIRC, RFC has said he was wrong.

In both cases where Cataphracts first appear, the source was Mesa -- aka The MAlign.

Also, IIRC there were Cataphracts used in conjunction with the Spider Drive Graser Torpedos for the Yawata Strike.

Tracing the origins of the Cataphracts, regardless of who is making them, where, might well be the key to finding the MAlign. (I strongly suspect that the initial supply was designed and constructed at Darius and never actually passed through Mesa.)

Brigade XO wrote:The first navy or SDF to use anything close to the Spider drive where it becomes public is going to get really close attention from Manticore, Haven, Grayson (who would like to apply a Test to them) and a few other people.