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

johncarter wrote:The odds are that any traffic from Darius involves ships that don't formally exist outside of that traffic, though they might well have the ID of actual ships. Or otherwise will be very difficult to trace. Somehow I doubt you are going to get the active cooperation of the people who are working with the MA to get uncooked records etc.


So let's say you find an uncharted developed system. What's next? You are going to do what?

I predict you'll go to make contact and never ever leave

Textev says Kolokainos is shipping in and out of Darius through the now controlled by Manticore, Visigoth EHJ. Which BTW was not on Lacoon 2's hit list.

Depends on how large a fleet you send in. Unless you are unlucky enough to translatr back to N-space right on top of a hostile ship, you could hyper back out in whatever time it takes for your hyper generatorto recycle.

pappilon wrote:Textev says Kolokainos is shipping in and out of Darius through the now controlled by Manticore, Visigoth EHJ. Which BTW was not on Lacoon 2's hit list.

Care to cite that textev?

The Visigoth WH leads to Mesa, not Darius.

Maybe now we'll get the long awaited "Preston Of The Spaceways" saga.

Weird Harold wrote:

pappilon wrote:Textev says Kolokainos is shipping in and out of Darius through the now controlled by Manticore, Visigoth EHJ. Which BTW was not on Lacoon 2's hit list.

Care to cite that textev?

The Visigoth WH leads to Mesa, not Darius.

Sell, since people here are trying to chase breadcrumbs in, er, sandstorms: There is a super duper former MAlign agent now working with the GA who has a special grudge against Kolokainos Jr. in particular and Kolokainos shipping in general who can place Kolokainos Jr at Monica with Technodyne, and Manpower.

The ship delivering those newly released goods for Beowulf that just happened to jettison double shipping containers of silver darts through the Beowulf system just happened to be a Kolokainos hull. Which hull happened to ass through the Visigoth junction while it was being controlled my Manty personnel.

Yes granted the ship left Darius frr some other planet where it loaded up its stuff, passed through the worm hole then of to a red dwarf for its "speial cargo" thence a few days behind schedule to Beowulf.

Bread crumb followers now have a ship to find in the immense space of thr Solarian League. Good luck Shirt-storm troopers.

Weird Harold wrote:

pappilon wrote:Textev says Kolokainos is shipping in and out of Darius through the now controlled by Manticore, Visigoth EHJ. Which BTW was not on Lacoon 2's hit list.

Care to cite that textev?

The Visigoth WH leads to Mesa, not Darius.

Sell, since people here are trying to chase breadcrumbs in, er, sandstorms: There is a super duper former MAlign agent now working with the GA who has a special grudge against Kolokainos Jr. in particular and Kolokainos shipping in general who can place Kolokainos Jr at Monica with Technodyne, and Manpower.

The ship delivering those newly released goods for Beowulf that just happened to jettison double shipping containers of silver darts through the Beowulf system just happened to be a Kolokainos hull. Which hull happened to ass through the Visigoth junction while it was being controlled my Manty personnel.

Yes granted the ship left Darius frr some other planet where it loaded up its stuff, passed through the worm hole then of to a red dwarf for its "speial cargo" thence a few days behind schedule to Beowulf.

Bread crumb followers now have a ship to find in the immense space of thr Solarian League. Good luck Shirt-storm troopers.[/quote]

Far too simple. If the next arc is 20 years away, Darius will not have really been found. Also, it would not be that difficult to hide a lot of things on the planet.

Most of the people, even if slaves, live very well. They might not consider themselves slaves, just members of a "service society."

Yes, there are thousands of Houdini people but not hard to hide them in a world of billions.

Weird Harold wrote:Textev says Kolokainos is shipping in and out of Darius through the now controlled by Manticore, Visigoth EHJ. Which BTW was not on Lacoon 2's hit list.

Care to cite that textev?

The Visigoth WH leads to Mesa, not Darius.[/quote]

pappilon wrote:Well, since people here are trying to chase breadcrumbs in, er, sandstorms: There is a super duper former MAlign agent now working with the GA who has a special grudge against Kolokainos Jr. in particular and Kolokainos shipping in general who can place Kolokainos Jr at Monica with Technodyne, and Manpower.

The ship delivering those newly released goods for Beowulf that just happened to jettison double shipping containers of silver darts through the Beowulf system just happened to be a Kolokainos hull. Which hull happened to ass through the Visigoth junction while it was being controlled my Manty personnel.

Yes granted the ship left Darius for some other planet where it loaded up its stuff, passed through the worm hole then of to a red dwarf for its "speial cargo" thence a few days behind schedule to Beowulf.

Bread crumb followers now have a ship to find in the immense space of thr Solarian League. Good luck Shirt-storm troopers.

ldwechsler wrote:Far too simple. If the next arc is 20 years away, Darius will not have really been found. Also, it would not be that difficult to hide a lot of things on the planet.

Most of the people, even if slaves, live very well. They might not consider themselves slaves, just members of a "service society."

Yes, there are thousands of Houdini people but not hard to hide them in a world of billions.

Yes you can hide lots of hay in a haystack. Can't really hide spaceships lying doggo in planetary orbit from Stealthy Man.ty RDs, though. And some stumpy looking ship bristling with mlitary-looking missile tubes or pod doors would be ... suspicious. Unless of course, the bolthole-that-is-Darius also conveniently has its own bolthole? I mean you gotta be building, working up and parking those ships somewhere. I hold that tracing one Kolokainos hull in the fleet of Kolokainos in the vasty emptiness of space is a non-trivial exercise.

One possibility for protecting Darius is to have the Renaissance Factor "annex" it and turn it (nominally) into their own Bolthole or Trevor's Star. That way, if the GA or someone else does stumble upon them, it can go like this:

RMN ship enters the system
RMN Officer: Uh, Skipper, this system is definitely inhabited. I'm picking up a lot of activity in the inner system. But it's not on any of our charts.
RMN Captain: This could be it...
RMN Officer: Wait a minute, I'm picking up a message from a beacon.
RMN Captain: Play it.
Message: Attention all ships. This system is under the control of the Renaissance Factor Navy and has been declared a CLOSED MILITARY ANCHORAGE. Do not enter. Any unauthorized ship that enters the system WILL BE FIRED UPON. This is your final warning.

Of course, this plan only works if they've managed to conceal the relationship between the RF and the Alignment.

Anyway, I've got another theory for something that might happen: Technodyne declaring independence.

Their incentive is obvious: they're up to their necks in recent affairs, and they can no longer expect any protection from the League. But they still have Yildun, which, while lacking in planets, does have an abundance of mineral wealth, a wormhole junction, and the best R&D and shipyards in the League. Getting a fleet is easy, and if they have a few years, they can tech up to the point that they're within shouting distance of the GA. If they can convince their neighboring systems to join them, then they have a measure of protection.

Of course, the GA might have already ordered a fleet to occupy Yildun. But if they don't, then Yildun would make an excellent secondary antagonist for the future. One who would soon pose a technical threat, would be a natural supporter for all those in the League who want to restore the old ways, and would end up under Alignment influence as naturally as celery ends up in the stomachs of treecats. The smart thing, of course, would be for the junior executives and upper management of TIY to do this themselves, then offer up their former bosses as a sacrifice. "Oh, no, we had nothing to do with all of these horrible things our bosses did, and we'll be happy to extradite them as soon as you give us formal diplomatic recognition."

Meshakhad wrote:
Anyway, I've got another theory for something that might happen: Technodyne declaring independence.

Their incentive is obvious: they're up to their necks in recent affairs, and they can no longer expect any protection from the League. But they still have Yildun, which, while lacking in planets, does have an abundance of mineral wealth, a wormhole junction, and the best R&D and shipyards in the League. Getting a fleet is easy, and if they have a few years, they can tech up to the point that they're within shouting distance of the GA. If they can convince their neighboring systems to join them, then they have a measure of protection.

Of course, the GA might have already ordered a fleet to occupy Yildun. But if they don't, then Yildun would make an excellent secondary antagonist for the future. One who would soon pose a technical threat, would be a natural supporter for all those in the League who want to restore the old ways, and would end up under Alignment influence as naturally as celery ends up in the stomachs of treecats. The smart thing, of course, would be for the junior executives and upper management of TIY to do this themselves, then offer up their former bosses as a sacrifice. "Oh, no, we had nothing to do with all of these horrible things our bosses did, and we'll be happy to extradite them as soon as you give us formal diplomatic recognition."

Yeah, I miss Dark Matter too. I was so Pulling for Mikkei Corp.

Both Kolokainos and Technodyne were members of the Mesan Board of Directors.

The Wormhole terminus where the Silver Bullet delivery ship was waiting was at Warner not Visigoth.

IIRC There are a line of Streak Drive equipped freighters running out of Darius.

One thing that would appear to me to be a logical solution to finding the Alignment would be to inspect every ship's Hyper Generator traveling through a wormhole held but the GA. IIRC the Streak Drive generator is a much larger than normal installation. Personally I'd be inspecting every Jessyck and Kolokainos lines ship.

Quite frankly I was stunned that the GA let any Kolokainos ships into Beowulf in the first place or to use the wormhole network at all. They were proven opponents, if not outright enemies, as long ago as Monica.

kzt wrote:The odds are that any traffic from Darius involves ships that don't formally exist outside of that traffic, though they might well have the ID of actual ships. Or otherwise will be very difficult to trace. Somehow I doubt you are going to get the active cooperation of the people who are working with the MA to get uncooked records etc.


So let's say you find an uncharted developed system. What's next? You are going to do what?

I predict you'll go to make contact and never ever leave.

And when you don't return it's going to be a pack of SD(P)'s that investigate your disappearance.