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Vince
Vice Admiral
Posts: 1574
Joined: Fri Apr 09, 2010 11:43 pm
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cthia wrote:SoV wrote:Barregos nodded again. Admiral Alexander Chapman was the Erewhon Space Navy’s senior uniformed officer, and Glenn Horton was his and Roszak’s local interface with the Erewhonese yards building the Maya Sector Defense Force. Of course, the MSDF didn’t officially exist, but that was perfectly all right with Orville Barregos, since the ships in it didn’t officially exist yet, either.
And, he reminded himself, it won’t be so very long before the Maya Sector Defense Force becomes the Mayan Navy. And won’t that frost some chops in Old Chicago?
cthia wrote:This brings me right back to my failing to understand why Sphinx doesn't have its own navy. They are the other twin in the Manticore Binary System, the richest system in the galaxy. They should be able to afford their own navy.
Vince wrote:They do have their own navy. And so does Gryphon.
It's called the Royal Manticoran Navy.
Fat good it's going to do them parked and deployed around Manticore orbit when the amount of tonnage comes acallin' like what Tourville brought along and they decide to make a beeline straight for Sphinx. Which, as I said before, seems it would be too much distraction for Honor, family being there. Which the SLN could still do. Hyper in, go straight for and kill Sphinx and make it hurt, being the bullies they are.
Except that when Tourville actually came acallin', Home Fleet was in orbit around Sphinx, went out to meet him and died to defend the planet and the system.And when the SLN came acallin', Grand Fleet (RMN, GSN and RHN) was deployed to cover Sphinx. And we saw how that worked out for the SLN. By now, I expect Mycroft has been deployed throughout Manticore A, at least, with Manticore B's Mycroft deployment closely following Manticore A's Mycroft deployment. And even back when Tourville came acallin', Sphinx had its own defenses, completely separate from Home Fleet in orbit around it: At All Costs, Chapter 66 wrote:"Any change in his heading, Judson?" Admiral Kuzak asked.
"No, Ma'am. He's maintaining exactly the same heading and acceleration," Commander Latrell replied.
"What the hell does he think he's doing, Ma'am?" Captain Smithson asked quietly, and Kuzak shrugged in irritation.
"Damned if I know," she acknowledged frankly. "Maybe he just figures he's still got the firepower to take us. After all, he's still got a hundred and eighteen wallers, and we've only got fifty-five, even with Duchess Harrington's orphans."
"But he's had the crap hammered out of him, Ma'am," Smithson objected. "The recon platforms indicate he's got heavy battle damage to at least half his survivors, and his acceleration rate would be proof enough of that, even without the platforms' reports. So say he's got the equivalent of eighty wallers' combat power—which is generous, I'd say—and they're still Peep SD(P)s. We don't have as many units as Home Fleet had, but all of ours are Medusas or Harringtons, and that gives us the edge in real combat power. Not only that, but he's got to have used up a lot of ammo. Hell, he didn't fire a single MDM at the LACs, and you saw what they did to his screen. His magazines have to be close to empty."
"So if his situation is so desperate," Judson Latrell asked, "why didn't he abandon the rest of his ships with impeller damage and run for it at a higher acceleration rate in the first place?"
"I suppose the answer to that depends at least in part on exactly what their actual objective is," Kuzak said.
She glanced at the master plot. Twenty-six minutes had passed since Third Fleet had translated back into normal-space. It was hard to believe that barely two hours ago, Home Fleet and all of its units had been safely in orbit around Sphinx. Now they were gone, reduced to spreading patterns of wreckage, and her own command was accelerating steadily towards battle with their killers at 6.01 KPS2. Her base velocity was up to almost ten thousand kilometers per second, she'd traveled the next best thing to eight million kilometers into the RZ, and the range to Second Fleet was coming down to right on sixty million kilometers. Which meant, of course, that they were already in her range, just as she was in theirs.
"Whatever they're up to," she said grimly, "I think you've got a point about their ammunition supply, Jerry. In which case, they aren't going to be hitting us with any more of those monster salvos. And it also means they haven't got enough birds left to waste them firing at long range, with their hit probabilities. We, on the other hand, have full magazines."
"You want to open fire now, Ma'am?" Commander Latrell asked, but she shook her head.
"Not just yet. In fact, not until they do." Her thin smile was cold. "Every kilometer the range drops increases our accuracy by a few thousandths of a percent. As long as they're willing not to shoot, so am I."
"They'll be coming into range of Sphinx in another ten minutes or so, Ma'am," Smithson said quietly.
"A good point." She nodded. "But that means the defense pods deployed around Sphinx are going to be coming into range of them, too, and the system reconnaissance platforms are going to give the defense pods very good accuracy."
"But if they open fire, the Peeps will return it," Latrell pointed out.
"I know," Kuzak agreed. "I've been thinking about that."
She considered numbers and ranges, then turned to Communications.
"Franklin, contact Admiral Caparelli. Tell him I recommend that the Sphinx defenses not fire on these people unless and until they launch against Sphinx."
"Yes, Ma'am," Lieutenant Bradshaw replied.
"Are you sure about that, Ma'am?" Smithson asked. Kuzak looked at him, and he looked back levelly. After all, one of a chief of staff's jobs was to play devil's advocate. "If they're going to bombard the planet, letting them get the first launch off unopposed is likely to cost us," he pointed out.
"But as Judson's just pointed out, if they aren't prepared to bombard the planet and the near-planet yards, and the orbital defenses open fire, they may go ahead and return it," Kuzak responded. "And they have been hammered hard. If Sphinx doesn't fire on them, they're probably going to reserve their fire for us, since we're obviously a much greater threat. Under the circumstances, I think it's worth risking letting them have one launch against the defenses, now that they're all on-line. Especially if they decide not to launch."
"Yes, Ma'am."
Italics are the author's, boldface is my emphasis. -------------------------------------------------------------
History does not repeat itself so much as it echoes.
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