OFS vs SLN

munroburton wrote:BUT at least the rotation allows for possibility of stagnant companies being sidelined and eventually abandoned. No forced rotation meant they inevitably ended up with too-big-to-fail entities such as Technodyne.

tlb wrote:

munroburton wrote:BUT at least the rotation allows for possibility of stagnant companies being sidelined and eventually abandoned. No forced rotation meant they inevitably ended up with too-big-to-fail entities such as Technodyne.

Technodyne is a very interesting company is this context, because we know that it is one of the few Solarian entities that is aware that Manticore has technology that it would like acquire. I assume this is because it was the clandestine supplier of military hardware to Haven, which gave their analysts a good idea of Haven's needs and the RMN's advantages. However it was also in bed with Manpower Incorporated and possibly the Alignment, therefore not a company to help the Solarian bureaucracy get either cleaner or wiser.

tlb wrote:

munroburton wrote:BUT at least the rotation allows for possibility of stagnant companies being sidelined and eventually abandoned. No forced rotation meant they inevitably ended up with too-big-to-fail entities such as Technodyne.

Technodyne is a very interesting company is this context, because we know that it is one of the few Solarian entities that is aware that Manticore has technology that it would like acquire. I assume this is because it was the clandestine supplier of military hardware to Haven, which gave their analysts a good idea of Haven's needs and the RMN's advantages. However it was also in bed with Manpower Incorporated and possibly the Alignment, therefore not a company to help the Solarian bureaucracy get either cleaner or wiser.

munroburton wrote:BUT at least the rotation allows for possibility of stagnant companies being sidelined and eventually abandoned. No forced rotation meant they inevitably ended up with too-big-to-fail entities such as Technodyne.

tlb wrote:Technodyne is a very interesting company is this context, because we know that it is one of the few Solarian entities that is aware that Manticore has technology that it would like acquire. I assume this is because it was the clandestine supplier of military hardware to Haven, which gave their analysts a good idea of Haven's needs and the RMN's advantages. However it was also in bed with Manpower Incorporated and possibly the Alignment, therefore not a company to help the Solarian bureaucracy get either cleaner or wiser.

stewart wrote:Technodyne IS an "interesting" company.... Do not remember where I read it (textev, Pearls, Bar, earlier threads), but Technodyne of Yildun was located or operated at a 3-termini WH Junction, one of which went to Mesa vicinity. The Junction had no planets associated with the local stars, So -- all habitats are manufactured, the junctions allow multiple escape routes (if needed), and no official local politics needing inconvenient, plausible deniability.
And at least some of the Board are quartered on Mesa.

Sounds like a nice place for a visit by Eighth or Grand Fleet.....

TIY's reputation for shady dealings wasn't quite in the same league as Jessyk's or Manpower's, but it was fairly impressive in its own right. Yildun's location, roughly a hundred and eighty-three light-years from Earth, put the A1 star almost exactly on the boundary between the ultra-civilized core planets of the original League and the more recently settled systems whose attitude towards things commercial (and sometimes military) remained rather more bare-knuckled than the satisfied worlds nearer the League's heart. Yildun was far enough off the main sequence to have no habitable planets, but the system was rich in asteroids and contained the second oldest known wormhole junction in the galaxy. It had only three termini, including the central junction, yet that had been more than enough to turn it into a central hub for shipping. Industry had followed, exploiting the incredible natural wealth of the system's asteroids, and, over the centuries, TIY had become one of the SLN's primary builders, with an in-house R&D division which enjoyed an enviable prestige.
TIY was also one of the trans-stellars which had vociferously protested the technology embargo the League had slapped on the belligerents in the Manticore-Haven War. Which might have had just a bit to do with its habit of occasionally disposing of the odd modern warship under questionable circumstances. It was rumored that the Yildun yards routinely built five to ten percent more hulls than the SLN had ordered and either kept them off the books completely or else "lost" them in a maze of paperwork which eventually deposited them in some very strange places indeed. And it was a demonstrated fact—no rumor, this!—that dozens of warships TIY had purchased "for reclamation" had ended up in the hands of third and fourth-tier navies (and sometimes pirates).

cthia wrote:This is very interesting. How did Technodyne initially learn about the advanced tech being deployed in the Haven sector? When did they learn of it? I recall a conversation from the mouth of one of the Mandarins, I do believe—or it could have been out of the mouth of a CO on one of Buccaneer's missions—that recognized Technodyne had to have been developing MDMs for quite some time. Was Technodyne a MAlign founded company from the beginning, or were they later recruited for Alignment purposes? How was the information kept from other companies? If they were recruited then the point or points of contact is still there, waiting to be "interviewed."

schoeffelk wrote:Consider the OFS as the US Department of Homeland Security. Nice title but no tanks, aircraft, or ships. Pretty but overall powerless. If a large threat is identified, they call the big boys and girls. OFS/FF is there to deal with very, very little fish. Pirates, systems that don't want to be abused by the SL masters.

Each 'little' Frontier Fleet command wanted to keep quiet and keep their position and power. If they identify a 'problem' and bring it to a higher level, they are out of their job/canned.

The SL had observers throughout the minor powers. Some of them were 'news reporters'. Those observers sent reports back that were ignored or downplayed. But nothing can be as good and great as the SLN.

The FF is the local beat cop, competent but underpowered when the big guns, or more modern warships, come to visit. Add in bigotry and incompetence, against a foe that has been tested in over 40 years of conflict. The end result is inevitable.

Think Italy and Ethiopia or Japan and China in WWII.

cthia wrote:This is very interesting. How did Technodyne initially learn about the advanced tech being deployed in the Haven sector? When did they learn of it? I recall a conversation from the mouth of one of the Mandarins, I do believe—or it could have been out of the mouth of a CO on one of Buccaneer's missions—that recognized Technodyne had to have been developing MDMs for quite some time. Was Technodyne a MAlign founded company from the beginning, or were they later recruited for Alignment purposes? How was the information kept from other companies? If they were recruited then the point or points of contact is still there, waiting to be "interviewed."

stewart wrote:Technodyne IS an "interesting" company.... Do not remember where I read it (textev, Pearls, Bar, earlier threads), but Technodyne of Yildun was located or operated at a 3-termini WH Junction, one of which went to Mesa vicinity. The Junction had no planets associated with the local stars, So -- all habitats are manufactured, the junctions allow multiple escape routes (if needed), and no official local politics needing inconvenient, plausible deniability.
And at least some of the Board are quartered on Mesa.

Sounds like a nice place for a visit by Eighth or Grand Fleet.....

-- Stewart