Kayla Barrett

Just re-reading Cauldron of Ghosts and I'm wondering if Kayla Barret (Sergeant, MISD) is a one-book character or is being set up for the later books.

We can guess that the Mesan situation is going to be that the Full Citizens will largely believe the 'Alignment' is a perfectly harmless organisation and that the nasty Manties/Ballroom set off all those nukes. Seccies and Slaves are probably going to have other views.

But if Sgt Barratt ever gets to believing that her brother and his family were murdered by the MAlign, and that all the utter hell she went through in Cauldron was because she and her squadmates had been manipulated into believing that the Ballroom/Seccies were responsible - I think she'd want to rip out any Detweiler's lungs with her bare hands.

Any thoughts? One book character, or the future version of a Mesan 'Ghost Hunter'?

Bluesqueak wrote:Just re-reading Cauldron of Ghosts and I'm wondering if Kayla Barret (Sergeant, MISD) is a one-book character or is being set up for the later books.

We can guess that the Mesan situation is going to be that the Full Citizens will largely believe the 'Alignment' is a perfectly harmless organisation and that the nasty Manties/Ballroom set off all those nukes. Seccies and Slaves are probably going to have other views.

But if Sgt Barratt ever gets to believing that her brother and his family were murdered by the MAlign, and that all the utter hell she went through in Cauldron was because she and her squadmates had been manipulated into believing that the Ballroom/Seccies were responsible - I think she'd want to rip out any Detweiler's lungs with her bare hands.

Any thoughts? One book character, or the future version of a Mesan 'Ghost Hunter'?

I think some of the non-Alignment Mesan officers, particularly the competent ones, will see the Alignment infiltration into their ranks and their society as a as an actual infiltration and will do their best to help the Ghost Hunters and Cachat/Zilwicki. But not immediately: they will take a lot of convincing that the evidence hasn't been faked. They need to be convinced that the infiltration has been under their noses the entire time, so it's natural they'll be on the defensive first.

And not a lot of them. Many will just see helping the Ghost Hunters and the GA as treason and won't do it, however much they become convinced (most will simply close their eyes to the evidence).

I think Kayla is one of those that will soon see the truth, but she's too low level (just an NCO) and she's a member of MISD, the one that seemed more corrupt and brutish of the forces in Mesa. The MPP officer who negotiated the cease fire with Palane seems like a much more important character to me.

Now THAT is an interesting premise. Presumably, an amount of the citizenry of Mesa has at last been somewhat "uplift modified" besides just the environmental stuff.

Assume that within a short period of time Barrett and some of her trusted folks come to the conclusions that a) Manticore didn't nuke the planet, and b) parties unknown did so and that someone on planet knows they were taking orders from parties disappeared.

Seems like Cachat, Palane, Zilwicki, Harahap and Co. might gain a large cohort of folks who are EXTREMELY MOTIVATED to help hunt down the MAlign and hang them high, no?

The elephant in the room with the claim that ‘Manticore didn’t nuke the planet’ is that Manticore and Haven did nuke the planet.

lets rephrase that to "10th Fleet didn't nuke the planet"

we can discuss that OTHER nuke another time

Dauntless wrote:lets rephrase that to "10th Fleet didn't nuke the planet"

we can discuss that OTHER nuke another time

Nazi commander helpfully explains,’While some Nazi’s might have committed attrocities, you can trust us. Just because we wear the same uniform as the people who were decorated and rewarded for mass murder of your people is no reason to think we are willing to lie to you.’

Dauntless wrote:lets rephrase that to "10th Fleet didn't nuke the planet"

we can discuss that OTHER nuke another time

kzt wrote:Nazi commander helpfully explains,’While some Nazi’s might have committed attrocities, you can trust us. Just because we wear the same uniform as the people who were decorated and rewarded for mass murder of your people is no reason to think we are willing to lie to you.’

I think we already put quite a bit of discussion into the Green Pines explosion, starting about here with the remarks by "quite possibly a cat":
Remaining holes in SLN Intel

For completeness I need to add this, where RFC set us straight about the legal status of Cachet and Zilwicki and whether Green Pines could be considered an Eridani Edict violation:
Haven Victorious

tlb wrote:I think we already put quite a bit of discussion into the Green Pines explosion, starting about here with the remarks by "quite possibly a cat":
Remaining holes in SLN Intel

For completeness I need to add this, where RFC set us straight about the legal status of Cachet and Zilwicki and whether Green Pines could be considered an Eridani Edict violation:
Haven Victorious

But the point remains that it'll take a LOT of convincing for the Mesans to accept the evidence. Even if they can be convinced in the short term that Tenth Fleet didn't nuke the planet, that doesn't exonerate Manticorans or the GA from responsibility. Mesans will have swallowed the propaganda that Green Pines was a sanctioned attack and that the Ballroom was responsible for everything in the last few months. Add to that their natural skepticism that their forces had been penetrated for centuries under their nose.

Kayla Barrett might be one of the first to see the truth. She may play a critical role in convincing someone higher up or she may collaborate with the Ghost Hunters to find more information (or both). But I don't think she'll go much further than that.

tlb wrote:I think we already put quite a bit of discussion into the Green Pines explosion

ThinksMarkedly wrote:But the point remains that it'll take a LOT of convincing for the Mesans to accept the evidence. Even if they can be convinced in the short term that Tenth Fleet didn't nuke the planet, that doesn't exonerate Manticorans or the GA from responsibility. Mesans will have swallowed the propaganda that Green Pines was a sanctioned attack and that the Ballroom was responsible for everything in the last few months. Add to that their natural skepticism that their forces had been penetrated for centuries under their nose.

Kayla Barrett might be one of the first to see the truth. She may play a critical role in convincing someone higher up or she may collaborate with the Ghost Hunters to find more information (or both). But I don't think she'll go much further than that.

I am not disagreeing with you, I was merely suggesting that we might not need to "discuss that OTHER nuke another time"; because we have already put many pages of discussion into that subject.

ThinksMarkedly wrote:Kayla Barrett might be one of the first to see the truth. She may play a critical role in convincing someone higher up or she may collaborate with the Ghost Hunters to find more information (or both). But I don't think she'll go much further than that.

Interesting thought if the ghost hunters from Sol send a team to Mesa; the affected investigators of Mesa might be much more likely to work with them.