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Title Posted
Shipyard types Jun 2004
Artificial intelligence and nanotechnology Apr 2004
Erewhon and the inertial compensator Apr 2004
Battleship and SD(P) comparisons Apr 2004
System control ships Apr 2004
Grav pulse comm post <em>Ashes of Victory</em> Apr 2004
<em>Gauntlet</em>'s weapons fit Mar 2004
Artificial divisions within the SLN Mar 2004
The Battle of Farley's Crossing Mar 2004
Gun control in the Star Kingdom of Manticore Feb 2003

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Pearls of Weber

A collection of posts by David Weber containing background information for his stories, collected and generously made available Joe Buckley.

The Mesan Spider Drive

  • Series: Honorverse
  • Date: March 17, 2009

…To the nameless Fly who sent me the e-mail pointing out (a) that the Mesan spider-drive ships mounting the attack on Manticore couldn't possibly tank enough reaction mass for the mission and (b) that the flare of their fusion drives would completely negate any stealth advantages of the spider drive itself, I will simply say that the spider drive ships do not use reaction drives. The scout ships do use reaction thrusters to propel themselves out of the freighter bays in which they were transported to Manticore, but we've seen Honorverse impeller drive ships using reaction thrusters to maneuver lots of times before. In short, this is not going to be a case of Honor's tactics at Cerberus, although some of the same "blind spots" which afflicted General Chernock's units at Cerberus do have parallels in Manticore's preparedness. (And, no, one of those blind spots is not a failure to look for visual cues from little things like massed fusion thrusters.)