Felix junction, key aspect of the story (possible spoilers?)

There'd be little need to protect the Twins with more than some stealthed BC's and dispatch boats.

I'd be dubious about using a mine field even as it could be detected, which could show that something interesting was right there.
Stealthed ships could hide away from the wormholes and wait for reinforcenents if needed, or just take out interlopers themselves. Or even get "spotted" sneaking away.

As far as Firebrand's parked ride, it is in another system and he had to organize a ride to his target on a ship owned by the Transtellar that has/had control of that system. There were already problems there, Firebrand was just keeping the pot stired.

That Streak Drive ship would not be waiting for him till hell froze over or they only received a recall message (and who would send it if that person was as far away as Mesa and not exactly getting timely updates from some fringe system in the Protectorates.
The Captain would have a time frame to wait where instructed and then leave and send back a report. It might be that there was a bult-in recovery loop wherein the ship leaves it's parking spot- after having compleated the nominal business . It will have a return window of time when it will be back- on an interval that would allow for the somewhat slippery business of dropping agent-proviecitures in interesting places that would let Firebrand rejoin if something cause him to miss the inital extraction window. That he could have been caught and interrogated is a possiblity but the crew (probably only the Captain) might know that Firebrand had previously had anti-tampering treatments. It also could be because there were any of a number of problems that delayed his leaving the target and he would have to work out another ride back to pick-up. The yacht you need to have a reason to go back but it could come in with another transponder, modified emissions signature and new cover- and perhaps the 1st officer as the face of the "new" ship's captain.
So, it isn't where Firebrand left it.

The other thing is that the ship may still have been on-station when word of the revolt and local plotical powerstruggle fighting broke out . If word keeps comming out- and the transtellar is going to be communicating with the home office and reinforcements- at some point the Yacht captain is going to have to move or draw suspision of an already upset Transtellar and risk haveing someone want to ask hard questions about his hanging around and where is your passenger?
It was a few months since the Revolution happened, hostilities have ended no agent has shown up....
That bird has flown.

Brigade XO wrote:As far as Firebrand's parked ride, it is in another system and he had to organize a ride to his target on a ship owned by the Transtellar that has/had control of that system. There were already problems there, Firebrand was just keeping the pot stired.

That Streak Drive ship would not be waiting for him till hell froze over or they only received a recall message (and who would send it if that person was as far away as Mesa and not exactly getting timely updates from some fringe system in the Protectorates.
The Captain would have a time frame to wait where instructed and then leave and send back a report. It might be that there was a bult-in recovery loop wherein the ship leaves it's parking spot- after having compleated the nominal business . It will have a return window of time when it will be back- on an interval that would allow for the somewhat slippery business of dropping agent-proviecitures in interesting places that would let Firebrand rejoin if something cause him to miss the inital extraction window. That he could have been caught and interrogated is a possiblity but the crew (probably only the Captain) might know that Firebrand had previously had anti-tampering treatments. It also could be because there were any of a number of problems that delayed his leaving the target and he would have to work out another ride back to pick-up. The yacht you need to have a reason to go back but it could come in with another transponder, modified emissions signature and new cover- and perhaps the 1st officer as the face of the "new" ship's captain.
So, it isn't where Firebrand left it.

The other thing is that the ship may still have been on-station when word of the revolt and local plotical powerstruggle fighting broke out . If word keeps comming out- and the transtellar is going to be communicating with the home office and reinforcements- at some point the Yacht captain is going to have to move or draw suspision of an already upset Transtellar and risk haveing someone want to ask hard questions about his hanging around and where is your passenger?
It was a few months since the Revolution happened, hostilities have ended no agent has shown up....
That bird has flown.

WoW! That's alot of Whatif's

No MA Streak Drive Vessel will ever be caught or break down till the energy death of the Universe -

Thanx for the heads up

Nimitz

Nimitz1923PD wrote:

Brigade XO wrote:As far as Firebrand's parked ride, it is in another system and he had to organize a ride to his target on a ship owned by the Transtellar that has/had control of that system. There were already problems there, Firebrand was just keeping the pot stired.

That Streak Drive ship would not be waiting for him till hell froze over or they only received a recall message (and who would send it if that person was as far away as Mesa and not exactly getting timely updates from some fringe system in the Protectorates.
The Captain would have a time frame to wait where instructed and then leave and send back a report. It might be that there was a bult-in recovery loop wherein the ship leaves it's parking spot- after having compleated the nominal business . It will have a return window of time when it will be back- on an interval that would allow for the somewhat slippery business of dropping agent-proviecitures in interesting places that would let Firebrand rejoin if something cause him to miss the inital extraction window. That he could have been caught and interrogated is a possiblity but the crew (probably only the Captain) might know that Firebrand had previously had anti-tampering treatments. It also could be because there were any of a number of problems that delayed his leaving the target and he would have to work out another ride back to pick-up. The yacht you need to have a reason to go back but it could come in with another transponder, modified emissions signature and new cover- and perhaps the 1st officer as the face of the "new" ship's captain.
So, it isn't where Firebrand left it.

The other thing is that the ship may still have been on-station when word of the revolt and local plotical powerstruggle fighting broke out . If word keeps comming out- and the transtellar is going to be communicating with the home office and reinforcements- at some point the Yacht captain is going to have to move or draw suspision of an already upset Transtellar and risk haveing someone want to ask hard questions about his hanging around and where is your passenger?
It was a few months since the Revolution happened, hostilities have ended no agent has shown up....
That bird has flown.

WoW! That's alot of Whatif's

No MA Streak Drive Vessel will ever be caught or break down till the energy death of the Universe -

Thanx for the heads up

Nimitz

Only perfection is divine... To mess things up takes a human... which makes having a streak get caught or break down a distinct possibility. Afer all, not even a streak can successfully defy Lord Murphy indefinitely...

Don

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Nimitz1923PD wrote:WoW! That's alot of Whatif's

No MA Streak Drive Vessel will ever be caught or break down till the energy death of the Universe -

Thanx for the heads up

Nimitz

Flip that equation around the other way. What are the odds of a MAlign ship breaking down in such a way that every fail-safe the MAlign's professional paranoiacs have thought of are disabled and in proximity to a GA warship which is aware of the prize nearly in its hands?

It's such a long shot that it's effectively up to the Power of Plot, in the same way that a grav-plating or fusion bottle failure on one of the MAlign ships during Operation Oyster Bay would be. Won't happen unless the author wants it to.

munroburton wrote:

Nimitz1923PD wrote:WoW! That's alot of Whatif's

No MA Streak Drive Vessel will ever be caught or break down till the energy death of the Universe -

Thanx for the heads up

Nimitz

Flip that equation around the other way. What are the odds of a MAlign ship breaking down in such a way that every fail-safe the MAlign's professional paranoiacs have thought of are disabled and in proximity to a GA warship which is aware of the prize nearly in its hands?

It's such a long shot that it's effectively up to the Power of Plot, in the same way that a grav-plating or fusion bottle failure on one of the MAlign ships during Operation Oyster Bay would be. Won't happen unless the author wants it to.

No MA Agent will ever screw up or fail to kill themselves for the Glory of thier Genocidal Masters until the energy death of the Universe

Thanx for the heads up

P.S. At some point blowing up your ships & killing your people is a diminishing return proposition


Nimitz

Nimitz1923PD wrote:

munroburton wrote:WoW! That's alot of Whatif's

No MA Streak Drive Vessel will ever be caught or break down till the energy death of the Universe -

Thanx for the heads up

Nimitz

Flip that equation around the other way. What are the odds of a MAlign ship breaking down in such a way that every fail-safe the MAlign's professional paranoiacs have thought of are disabled and in proximity to a GA warship which is aware of the prize nearly in its hands?

It's such a long shot that it's effectively up to the Power of Plot, in the same way that a grav-plating or fusion bottle failure on one of the MAlign ships during Operation Oyster Bay would be. Won't happen unless the author wants it to.

No MA Agent will ever screw up or fail to kill themselves for the Glory of thier Genocidal Masters until the energy death of the Universe

Thanx for the heads up

P.S. At some point blowing up your ships & killing your people is a diminishing return proposition


Nimitz[/quote]

P.S.S. If The MA blows up enough The GA won't have to worry the MA will have no streak drive Vessels

Does not really matter -The GA has the guy designing The New & Improved streak drive

Nimitz

Nimitz1923PD wrote:Does not really matter -The GA has the guy designing The New & Improved streak drive.

Nope. He never saw anything involving the hardware. He was completely theory. It certainly is extremely helpful, but not necessarily sufficient. He can show you in a set of equations how it can be done, but turning that into working hardware is not necessarily simple or easy, and may require other unrelated technological breakthroughs.

Some things are harder than they look, even when you think you have a solid theoretical understanding. We've been about 20 years from having a working fusion reactor for something like the last 70 years.

kzt wrote:

Nimitz1923PD wrote:Does not really matter -The GA has the guy designing The New & Improved streak drive.

Nope. He never saw anything involving the hardware. He was completely theory. It certainly is extremely helpful, but not necessarily sufficient. He can show you in a set of equations how it can be done, but turning that into working hardware is not necessarily simple or easy, and may require other unrelated technological breakthroughs.

Some things are harder than they look, even when you think you have a solid theoretical understanding. We've been about 20 years from having a working fusion reactor for something like the last 70 years.

When Simoes left Mesa the team He was on was upgrading the streak drive.He cannot improve a piece of Hardware if he dosent know its function

BTW It clearly stated The original steak drive used a brute force method

No non or ex-MA Scientist will ever be able to build a streak drive till the energy death of the Universe

Nimitz

It is a bit silly to suggest that nobody outside of the Alignment will ever be able to develop a streak drive. After all, the Alignment did it. So the possibility is that someone else can do it too.

As for kzt's point, unless Simoes' theoretical models are too incomplete, Hemphill, Foraker and company will be able to test the theory and eventually develop working models if the theory holds up. There may well be holes to fill in, but I imagine there are enough bright little boys and girls out at Bolthole to accomplish that too.

The point is that once you know something can be done, half the battle is won. Someone will do it.

Don

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