[SPOILERS] Now that the war is over . . .

You don't have to be secret about it. "Fleet 2030 plan. We'll establish 20 modern construction yards, each building 20 major warships per year, with a planned 20 years lifecycle". Cost per League citizen, $15sol per year."

kzt wrote:You don't have to be secret about it. "Fleet 2030 plan. We'll establish 20 modern construction yards, each building 20 major warships per year, with a planned 20 years lifecycle". Cost per League citizen, $15sol per year."

Nope. Don't have to be secretive. Indeed, the revamped League is highly unlikely to be secretive about it. Just saying that even if they were secretive about it for some reason, Manty and Havenite intelligence would almost certainly pick up on it anyway.

runsforcelery wrote:Nope. Don't have to be secretive. Indeed, the revamped League is highly unlikely to be secretive about it. Just saying that even if they were secretive about it for some reason, Manty and Havenite intelligence would almost certainly pick up on it anyway.

I would suspect that the reverse will also be true. I would also expect the SL to be proposing opening embassies and consulates all over AE, SEM and RH territory. Purely to assist in trade and their citizens in need, of course.

I agree with everyone else RFC, that's a lot of info squeezed into a lot of post. Thanks. I'm still digesting err chewing, then I'll attempt to digest. Thanks again.

I understand everyones sentiment, which is born from the fear the Manties had all along of a latter day plot of revenge coming from a risen League which has gotten itself back on balance. But, in the case of that beaten gorilla given/giving birth to a 1-ton-son, what can the GA feasibly do? If they attack without provocation - being fired upon - they'll appear to be bullies and their reputation is quickly squelched.

Also, since the League is now aware of a third player, don't they have a right to build up to prepare itself for the imminent return of this hidden entity? Just because the RMN can't afford to continue to build its House from steel, and has to cut corners by substituting particle board, doesn't mean the League has to.

Did the conditions of surrender include a ceiling on warships built? Hard numbers? Even for its own defense?


One thing I suspect is that the Sollies will never ignore what's going on in the Haven sector ever again, which is sort of late now that the war is over. Perhaps from now on and in the future, they'll covet every report coming in of a Manty ship engaging a pirate.

I also suspect their ONI to be targeted and gutted. Make them drop their drawers and fire on them with their wedges down.

kzt wrote:

runsforcelery wrote:Nope. Don't have to be secretive. Indeed, the revamped League is highly unlikely to be secretive about it. Just saying that even if they were secretive about it for some reason, Manty and Havenite intelligence would almost certainly pick up on it anyway.

I would suspect that the reverse will also be true. I would also expect the SL to be proposing opening embassies and consulates all over AE, SEM and RH territory. Purely to assist in trade and their citizens in need, of course.

Oh of course. Genius! And very interesting, a humbled League reduced to seeking embassy amongst neobarbs. "Well I never!"

About that derogatory term of neobarb. Wonder if that'll continue in the aftermath.

cthia wrote:I agree with everyone else RFC, that's a lot of info squeezed into a lot of post. Thanks. I'm still digesting err chewing, then I'll attempt to digest. Thanks again.

I understand everyones sentiment, which is born from the fear the Manties had all along of a latter day plot of revenge coming from a risen League which has gotten itself back on balance. But, in the case of that beaten gorilla given/giving birth to a 1-ton-son, what can the GA feasibly do? If they attack without provocation - being fired upon - they'll appear to be bullies and their reputation is quickly squelched.

Also, since the League is now aware of a third player, don't they have a right to build up to prepare itself for the imminent return of this hidden entity? Just because the RMN can't afford to continue to build its House from steel, and has to cut corners by substituting particle board, doesn't mean the League has to.

Did the conditions of surrender include a ceiling on warships built? Hard numbers? Even for its own defense?


One thing I suspect is that the Sollies will never ignore what's going on in the Haven sector ever again, which is sort of late now that the war is over. Perhaps from now on and in the future, they'll covet every report coming in of a Manty ship engaging a pirate.

I also suspect their ONI to be targeted and gutted. Make them drop their britches and fire on them with their wedges down.

The peace terms hewed to sort of anti-Verdun Theory. No reparations, no hard ceilings on warships, full recognition of the new Constitution as soon as it's adopted, immediate reopening of the hyper bridges at prewar transit rates, etc. Certain individuals implicated in war crimes will be surrendered to the GA for trial before a joint GA-SL court(rather like Honor's approach to the SS trials on Cerberus) with full press coverage and no secret testimony or evidence. A commission of SL physicists will be invited to Haven to examine the Houdini sites to help determine how the attacks were carried out. Intelligence on the Alignment, including access to Simoes and to Jack McBryde's data chips will be shared with people like the Ghost Hunters. Anyone who wants to interview members of the "benign" Alignment on Mesa will also be encouraged to do so, and the ASL will be invited to participate in the reorganization of Mesa's politics and economy. And the GA will expressly recognize the SL's right to rebuild its military in light of the new tech systems available and the threat --- which the GA will emphasize --- of the Malignant MA . . . whether the Sollies really believe in the MMA or not.

All of this will take time, of course, and there should be room for, oh, at least one more COS novel in there before anyone in the SL starts really looking critically at the Houdini wreckage, but generally speaking, the GA will be continuing its policy of bending over backwards to ride the SL with as light a rein as possible until the new Constitution is up and running and the GA can open normal diplomatic relationships and resume mutually beneficial trade with both the SL and with the newly independent star systems which have left the SL.

Now, there are definitely going to be some hard feelings in various transtellars' HQs, but even there the smart (and least rapacious) will be busy negotiating soft landings with their erstwhile debt peons, with strong support from the GA and mutual trade and security treaties to sweeten the pot. And the truth is that the only SL star system that really took a major hit during the war was Sol itself, as opposed to what happened to quite a few other star systems under Buccaneer. This fact will be made widely known in the press during the immediate postwar period, which will underline the restraint the GA actually showed during the war --- especially when the SL's diplomatic archives and the Mandarins' internal records are opened to the public. So absent machinations by parties unknown (tum-te-tum-te-tum), the GA and the SL ought to get back to reasonably amicable relations pretty soon.

runsforcelery wrote:A commission of SL physicists will be invited to Haven to examine the Houdini sites

I hate to nitpick but shouldn't that be Mesa?

So, another CoS-novel in which I guess we will see some more shenanigans instigated by Zilwicki and Cachat?

Joat42 wrote:I hate to nitpick but shouldn't that be Mesa?

They figure nobody in the SL can tell the difference between one non-SL world and another anyhow, so they are going to go look at the remnants of the Octagon and the towers hit by KE strikes during the Leveler's revolt.

kzt wrote:

Joat42 wrote:I hate to nitpick but shouldn't that be Mesa?

They figure nobody in the SL can tell the difference between one non-SL world and another anyhow, so they are going to go look at the remnants of the Octagon and the towers hit by KE strikes during the Leveler's revolt.

That was a . . . really not nice thing to say about Sollies, kzt! Especially when it was my error!


In the words of politicians everywhere, I miss-spoke. Only in my case, the damned computer heard me!

kzt wrote:

Joat42 wrote:I hate to nitpick but shouldn't that be Mesa?

They figure nobody in the SL can tell the difference between one non-SL world and another anyhow, so they are going to go look at the remnants of the Octagon and the towers hit by KE strikes during the Leveler's revolt.

runsforcelery wrote:That was a . . . really not nice thing to say about Sollies, kzt! Especially when it was my error!

In the words of politicians everywhere, I miss-spoke. Only in my case, the damned computer heard me!

In your case it's literally that your computer doesn't do what you want it to do, only what you tell it to do.