(Spoiler!) What's Next for the Honorverse?(Spoiler Warning!)

Joat42 wrote:There is one simple way to increase the chance to find the MAlign (although it's going to be VERY tedious for some analysts).

Post ridiculous monetary rewards for verifiable information about the MAlign, the Detweilers and associates. Greed is a very powerful motivator for some people.

Normally that is true. But those with knowlege of the MAlign are theMAlign. As such they have a vested self-survival instinct overriding the greed.

Weird Harold wrote:
The minor detail that there is textev that says the RMN had manning problems is just another inconvenience to you.

Well, we’ve identified the 1% who are involved with military production and the military. What do the other 99% do that is so critical that they can’t possibly be spared from whatever they do? Maybe a full 0.1% are involved in resource production, but I’d bet on more like 0.01% (3.5 million vs 350,000) since it would be automated as hell. But either way, what else do the rest do that is so critical?

pappilon wrote:

Joat42 wrote:There is one simple way to increase the chance to find the MAlign (although it's going to be VERY tedious for some analysts).

Post ridiculous monetary rewards for verifiable information about the MAlign, the Detweilers and associates. Greed is a very powerful motivator for some people.

Normally that is true. But those with knowlege of the MAlign are the MAlign. As such they have a vested self-survival instinct overriding the greed.

That's true, but they don't operate in a vacuum. There are always people in the periphery that may have some tidbits of information.

Joat42 wrote:Normally that is true. But those with knowlege of the MAlign are the MAlign. As such they have a vested self-survival instinct overriding the greed.

That's true, but they don't operate in a vacuum. There are always people in the periphery that may have some tidbits of information.[/quote]
There is a well known organization on Mesa.... who know nothing useful.

kzt wrote:

Weird Harold wrote:
The minor detail that there is textev that says the RMN had manning problems is just another inconvenience to you.

Well, we’ve identified the 1% who are involved with military production and the military. What do the other 99% do that is so critical that they can’t possibly be spared from whatever they do? Maybe a full 0.1% are involved in resource production, but I’d bet on more like 0.01% (3.5 million vs 350,000) since it would be automated as hell. But either way, what else do the rest do that is so critical?

The other 99% support the economy large enough to support their military. The same applies to Darius. In order for that percentage in the military/government to be appreciably higher than the SEM managed, those supporting people have to be more productive/efficient.

There is text that the MAlign wasn't as productive as the SKM in military production. Let's assume that the MAlign would be more productive elsewhere, but that the entire economy is equally efficient. They would face the same constraints as the SEM. Hence, Darius' population has to be significantly larger than the SEM's to support a significantly larger navy. Since Talbott and Haven are pitching in, that definitely means they CANNOT out produce the SEM/GA out of their internal resources. The MAlign either needs to import personnel and resources to build up Darius or distribute their production elsewhere the GA is more likely to discover.
Either option involves ships traveling from port to port leaving a trail for Plays with fire to sniff out.

kzt wrote:Normally that is true. But those with knowlege of the MAlign are the MAlign. As such they have a vested self-survival instinct overriding the greed.

Joat42 wrote:That's true, but they don't operate in a vacuum. There are always people in the periphery that may have some tidbits of information.

kzt wrote:There is a well known organization on Mesa.... who know nothing useful.

So you are saying that everyone that has had any kind of dealings with the MAlign et al (directly or indirectly) either is going to keep their mouths shut or they know nothing?

That means that the MAlign is flawless in keeping everything secret and they don't do any mistakes.

Joat42 wrote:

kzt wrote:Normally that is true. But those with knowlege of the MAlign are the MAlign. As such they have a vested self-survival instinct overriding the greed.

This is not from me.

And it's a book, so there is a whole lot of perfection in the Honorverse.

For example, there was apparently not a single MA agent working for Ivaldi, the main military fabrication company in Beowulf.

Not a single person of the hundreds of thousands with access to the actual performance figures or system manual for an MDM in either Haven, Manticore, Aldermani Empire, Grayson or Erehwon was ever disloyal or in desperate need of money, or talked about it in the wrong place or left documentation out.

The RMN captured some 200 ships built at Bolthole with entirely intact computer system and not a single clue as to where Bolthole could be emerged.

Joat42 wrote:

kzt wrote:Normally that is true. But those with knowlege of the MAlign are the MAlign. As such they have a vested self-survival instinct overriding the greed.

kzt wrote:This is not from me.

No it isn't its from pappilon

kzt wrote:And it's a book, so there is a whole lot of perfection in the Honorverse.

For example, there was apparently not a single MA agent working for Ivaldi, the main military fabrication company in Beowulf.

No but there is one that got sent back to Old Terra from there with a date chip. And you can bet your bottom centicred as soon as the SLN found out about it, it was in the queue for the next dispatch ship to Darius. Which is how the MAlign so accurately co-ordinated their attack with BF's one.

kzt wrote:Not a single person of the hundreds of thousands with access to the actual performance figures or system manual for an MDM in either Haven, Manticore, Aldermani Empire, Grayson or Erehwon was ever disloyal or in desperate need of money, or talked about it in the wrong place or left documentation out.

Not without some considerable trying by the MAlign. Who BTW had prety good intel on Manty systems. "OOPS, did we forget to share that with the SLN who we are spending so much time trying to disuade from 'paying attention' in the first place?"

kzt wrote:The RMN captured some 200 ships built at Bolthole with entirely intact computer system and not a single clue as to where Bolthole could be emerged.

Nobody said the Peeps were stupid, despite the ...discrepancies of their educational system.

kzt wrote:This is not from me.

Ah, it's from pappilon - sorry about that.

kzt wrote:And it's a book, so there is a whole lot of perfection in the Honorverse.

For example, there was apparently not a single MA agent working for Ivaldi, the main military fabrication company in Beowulf.

Not a single person of the hundreds of thousands with access to the actual performance figures or system manual for an MDM in either Haven, Manticore, Aldermani Empire, Grayson or Erehwon was ever disloyal or in desperate need of money, or talked about it in the wrong place or left documentation out.

I seem to remember that the MAlign had pretty solid information on the missile systems, but they lacked information on some of the key components.

kzt wrote:The RMN captured some 200 ships built at Bolthole with entirely intact computer system and not a single clue as to where Bolthole could be emerged.

I think RFC addressed that question in a post a while ago. Deliver the newly built ships with scrubbed computers. And there where 5 (I think) people outside of Bolthole that new it's location, compare that to the amount of people that was involved in Houdini - and I'm not just counting the people in the know. There is even textev for a couple of people quietly wander off during Houdini when their handler got dead if I remember correctly.

Joat42 wrote:I think RFC addressed that question in a post a while ago. Deliver the newly built ships with scrubbed computers. And there where 5 (I think) people outside of Bolthole that new it's location, compare that to the amount of people that was involved in Houdini - and I'm not just counting the people in the know. There is even textev for a couple of people quietly wander off during Houdini when their handler got dead if I remember correctly.

They trained up entire fleets there. So I tend to suspect that every single astrogator on every one of those ships knows exactly where they were built.

"Second Fleet was a new organization. The old Second Fleet had been dissolved after Thunderbolt, and the new one's skeleton of veteran units was receiving primarily new construction, straight from completing working up exercises under Shannon Foraker's direction in Bolthole."