Spoiler(s) dangling threads

Loren Pechtel wrote:
Once Houdini was over wouldn't those stations go boom?

You're thinking of those stations used as staging places that exploded in the final flourish. I'm talking the places used for people like Zachariah McBryde where it was small groups moving in the channels of slaves.

Yeah the entire apparatus of the slave trade could explode, but I don't think the could pull that off everywhere.

pappilon wrote:How is Manpower going to go belly-up? All they gotta do is head out to their outpost on the other side of Torch's WHJ and set up shop there under the protection of a detachment of Mannerheim's finest.

I think that's about the last thing the RF would want to do!

If Manpower springs back up somewhere don't you think the GA is going to come investigating? The SLN won't stop them from taking the fight to Manpower these days.

feyhunde wrote:

Loren Pechtel wrote:
Once Houdini was over wouldn't those stations go boom?

You're thinking of those stations used as staging places that exploded in the final flourish. I'm talking the places used for people like Zachariah McBryde where it was small groups moving in the channels of slaves.

Yeah the entire apparatus of the slave trade could explode, but I don't think the could pull that off everywhere.

The ships bringing out the Onion people could simply leave behind a big bomb when they pass through.

I've always thought that Houdini was far too elaborate and complicated, not to mention hastily executed, to be done flawlessly. Visualize a knit sweater with a loose thread. Somebody finds the thread and starts tugging...guess what happens to the sweater...

I keep wondering what the loose thread for Houdini will turn out to be...weouldn't it be ironic if it were to turn out that Firebrand found the loose thread?

Don

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Manpower was toast as soon as the Alignment left Mesa. I don't recall it had any other actual breeding operations off planet though the various operations to handle genetic slave sales are probably still in operation, just without any new supplies of slaves.

Manpower was really only valuable to the Alignment as a source and cover for research and operational cover in deep cover hidden in the protection of the Mesa System Government. It was a portal and distribution point which hid the Alignment activity and the ability to cover a lot of interstellar traffic passing through a system which had a lot of security and controls (which the Alignment was subverting) because Manpower/Mesa had so much in the need for the controls based on the problems of being a pariah because of the slave trade and the need to protect Manpower from those that hated it and slavery. So it was - from so many points of view- a nest of criminal activity that was generating a lot of weath for Mesa.
Now the GA holds the Mesa System, the planet has had the the crap beaten out of it and the majority of it's population is either the slaves and to a lesser extent the 2nd class citizen Seccie group. If Mesa is lucky, the GA will be able to keep the former slave population (and the Seccies) from killing a signifcant number of the former "free" population in a low level of mostly indivudal violence againt their former owners and Mesans in general rather than the possible civil war that the Alignment anticipated (and probably was counting on) since the GA is going to work really hard to keep that from happening.

The Alignment has no real use for anybody they left on Mesa. From their point of view, the entire remainder of the population is only still useful as a target and misdirection.

One question is how many of the ships which were drafted into the Houdini lift are going to suffer unexplained problems after they made the Houdini transfers at various waypoint and just vanish- with bombs planted by the Alignment. Tough to get any information from a ship that went boom in hyperdrive. Obviously there are still a number (probably large) of ships and agents which will continue to be used and usefull to the Alignment in keeping information and materials flowing to the Alignment but it is brutal about snipping off loose ends.

n7axw wrote:I've always thought that Houdini was far too elaborate and complicated, not to mention hastily executed, to be done flawlessly. Visualize a knit sweater with a loose thread. Somebody finds the thread and starts tugging...guess what happens to the sweater...

I keep wondering what the loose thread for Houdini will turn out to be...weouldn't it be ironic if it were to turn out that Firebrand found the loose thread?

Don

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*Firebrand is the loose thread.

Brigade XO wrote:Manpower was toast as soon as the Alignment left Mesa. I don't recall it had any other actual breeding operations off planet though the various operations to handle genetic slave sales are probably still in operation, just without any new supplies of slaves.

Manpower was really only valuable to the Alignment as a source and cover for research and operational cover in deep cover hidden in the protection of the Mesa System Government. It was a portal and distribution point which hid the Alignment activity and the ability to cover a lot of interstellar traffic passing through a system which had a lot of security and controls (which the Alignment was subverting) because Manpower/Mesa had so much in the need for the controls based on the problems of being a pariah because of the slave trade and the need to protect Manpower from those that hated it and slavery. So it was - from so many points of view- a nest of criminal activity that was generating a lot of weath for Mesa.
Now the GA holds the Mesa System, the planet has had the the crap beaten out of it and the majority of it's population is either the slaves and to a lesser extent the 2nd class citizen Seccie group. If Mesa is lucky, the GA will be able to keep the former slave population (and the Seccies) from killing a signifcant number of the former "free" population in a low level of mostly indivudal violence againt their former owners and Mesans in general rather than the possible civil war that the Alignment anticipated (and probably was counting on) since the GA is going to work really hard to keep that from happening.

The Alignment has no real use for anybody they left on Mesa. From their point of view, the entire remainder of the population is only still useful as a target and misdirection.

One question is how many of the ships which were drafted into the Houdini lift are going to suffer unexplained problems after they made the Houdini transfers at various waypoint and just vanish- with bombs planted by the Alignment. Tough to get any information from a ship that went boom in hyperdrive. Obviously there are still a number (probably large) of ships and agents which will continue to be used and usefull to the Alignment in keeping information and materials flowing to the Alignment but it is brutal about snipping off loose ends.

No really serious corporation goes quietly into that soft night. I really got it that The Onion has no need for Manpower. That has nothing whatsoever with the survival of any Mesan corporation even the Jessyck Combine. If enough can get off Mesa will they try to start over? Of course they will. They need the Onion as much as the Onion needs them.

Torch was a breeding ground, IIRC. There could be others as well. I would agree, however, that Manpower is toast, if not in the immediate short term, than most certainly in the long run.

Don

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n7axw wrote:Torch was a breeding ground, IIRC. There could be others as well. I would agree, however, that Manpower is toast, if not in the immediate short term, than most certainly in the long run.

Don

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You know Torch has been carefully building up as much intel on Manpower as they can, and slowly building up their forces and tactics on smaller bases. Without Mesa to protect those sites, thy might increase their op tempo against Manpower. At that point, it's just a matter of time.

pappilon wrote:

Brigade XO wrote:Manpower was toast as soon as the Alignment left Mesa. I don't recall it had any other actual breeding operations off planet though the various operations to handle genetic slave sales are probably still in operation, just without any new supplies of slaves.

Manpower was really only valuable to the Alignment as a source and cover for research and operational cover in deep cover hidden in the protection of the Mesa System Government. It was a portal and distribution point which hid the Alignment activity and the ability to cover a lot of interstellar traffic passing through a system which had a lot of security and controls (which the Alignment was subverting) because Manpower/Mesa had so much in the need for the controls based on the problems of being a pariah because of the slave trade and the need to protect Manpower from those that hated it and slavery. So it was - from so many points of view- a nest of criminal activity that was generating a lot of weath for Mesa.

Now the GA holds the Mesa System, the planet has had the the crap beaten out of it and the majority of it's population is either the slaves and to a lesser extent the 2nd class citizen Seccie group. If Mesa is lucky, the GA will be able to keep the former slave population (and the Seccies) from killing a signifcant number of the former "free" population in a low level of mostly indivudal violence againt their former owners and Mesans in general rather than the possible civil war that the Alignment anticipated (and probably was counting on) since the GA is going to work really hard to keep that from happening.

The Alignment has no real use for anybody they left on Mesa. From their point of view, the entire remainder of the population is only still useful as a target and misdirection.

One question is how many of the ships which were drafted into the Houdini lift are going to suffer unexplained problems after they made the Houdini transfers at various waypoint and just vanish- with bombs planted by the Alignment. Tough to get any information from a ship that went boom in hyperdrive. Obviously there are still a number (probably large) of ships and agents which will continue to be used and usefull to the Alignment in keeping information and materials flowing to the Alignment but it is brutal about snipping off loose ends.

No really serious corporation goes quietly into that soft night. I really got it that The Onion has no need for Manpower. That has nothing whatsoever with the survival of any Mesan corporation even the Jessyck Combine. If enough can get off Mesa will they try to start over? Of course they will. They need the Onion as much as the Onion needs them.

Manpower's headquarters was on Mesa. If Admirals Henke and Tourville had any sense, they immediately prevented Manpower from engaging in any off-planet operations of any variety, and left the question of what to do with on-planet operations until Jeremy X arrived, or said he wasn't going to. Or else turned the problem over to MCG to work out.

In any case, Manpower's off-planet operations no longer have contact with their headquarters, so they've got to reorganize if they want to survive as an organization.

And it isn't like there aren't other planets that have genetic slavery: Anton Zilwiki's cover in Cauldron of Ghosts was one such.