Brigade XO wrote:The GA is now in posession of everything (we presume) that Technodyne had supplied to the SLN up to that point including samples, working weapons & equipment, proposals, everything. So the Ga has a lot of stuff to wade through and digest.
Somebody has got to come around to wondering just how Technodyne was generating all this stuff and selling it - in various direct streams- the the SLN and why none of it was showing up elcewhere. That elcewhere being conspicuously only present at Monica and then the PRN in Excile that hired out to turn Torch into a lifeless ball.
Agreed, and since the information comes from the SL, it will be easy for the GA investigators to point the Ghost Hunters to where those discrepancies show up, withoutu having to prove that they didn't alter the data. The Ghost Hunters will have access to the originals. I expect the MAlign will have backdated some documentation to make it look like TIY invented most of it, but the pace at which they had to push innovations through will have made them overlook something. And then of course there will be no scientists who can remember researching the topics.
We know from Filareta that the new Cataphracts came from Mesa, not from a TIY facility or an SLN depot, so the actual hardware will not be easy to backtrack. The false leads planted in the TIY databases may point to further spies, though.
Maya has been the benficuary of the Erwhon receipt of the Manti Tech prior to the breakdown in deplomacy due to the High Ridge Administration etc. Still, there is no indication that any of that information is getting to the Alignment from either Maya or Erwhon. Erwhon may be building the ships but Maya is using them more receently---in combat---and had practical experience againt the Cataphracts.
No, they clearly didn't. Barregos and Luis's plan was to tell their superiors just enough to make it look they were getting something to justify investment in Erewhon, but not enough to actually make anyone come look. Since those were SL reports, I imagine the MAlign had access to all.
But if the MAlign had known just how powerful or how far along Carlucci was in building the Mayan forces, they'd never have sent the PRH-in-Exile to Torch. The defence agreement was public. Fighting those upgraded ships was a bad idea and they'd have known it.
Since they didn't, we can conclude OpSec held.
As far as the majority of the SL not being quite as unhappy with Manticore and the GA after Harrington showed up at Sol, well, that depends. There are going to be a whole lot of politicians who will want to use the undeclaired war as a way to power and influence. On the other hand, the SL bureaucracy was the agent that was manipulated into that problem and they were about two fingers shy of getting their hands around various Emergency Powers because they screwed up and would have put direct taxes on the League Members. That doesn't quite count the whole Operation Buccaneer plan which was clearly intended to cow Members as well as Independents into falling into line. If, and it's a big if, the League Member Worlds want to fully address the rot and lack of control that has developed over time within the League structure then this is the time to do it.
There is (althoug the loudest screamers who see a way to power and treasure won't like it) more than an even chance that most of the League Member Systems will see what happend at Sol for what it was: Manticore and Haven showing increadably massive restraint with "only" destroying every military ship, installation and essentialy all of the non-habitat orbital structures in the system and letting the military evacuate ALL of thier people. Ok, that was a very dire threat if the SLN didn't stand down and the GA had to go to the next THREE major League Systems and do the same thing - and repeat as nessary to get compliance with their terms- but the GA certainly showed restraint vs what the SLN was running with Opperation Buccaneer and the attacks leading up to Fillerta attacking the Manticore Home System
Essentialy: Fix your dam League and put effective controls into it so something like the Mandarins and OFS can't ooze out of the rocks again. Manticore doesn't want to kill every Star Nation in the League, they really only want not to be attacked.
Indeed, we've been told that opinion "beyond Kuiper" was quite different than that in the Sol system itself. The Mandarins did spend some time manipulating public opinion, but what really counted was the one on Sol. And since that system's economy is now destroyed, there's not much of a chance that the people living there will see the GA with kind eyes.
But beyond the Kuiper belt? The other core worlds weren't affected by war fighting itself, their industries are intact. We've discussed how much they must have felt the war and conclusion I remember is that they mostly felt Operation Lancoön, both phases, which reduced interstellar commerce. Mind you, I doubt that any planet depended on interstellar commerce for basic needs, but some items (especially luxury ones) may have become scarce, driving their prices up. The sectors most likely affected were the export ones, again of those rare and luxury items as well as high-tech ones that aren't usually made everywhere.
So there's going to be some resentment. But it's manageable, especially if Beowulf and Hypatia show an economic boom and other systems follow their lead. The GA can choose to invest in those planets, thereby influencing and reversing public opinion.
