Ep: 12 discussion and speculation

I don't know... Earth took quite a pasting there. It was on the edge before this book, but then the gunboats and then the battleships started glassing it from orbit. I don't think Earth is going to be doing much of anything except being a galactic aid recipient. "Alms for Earth?"

So that leaves Nathan's choices somewhat limited. Tanna is his only sustainable base at the moment. Maybe go liberate the systems around Sol to provide a buffer zone? Maybe just paste the ships in those systems without liberating the planets, so that any incoming Jung ships would stop to restore order rather than continuing on to Earth? Or go look for shipyards?

As Telles stated, Nathan is reacting only, because he has no real intel on the Jung layout or borders. He doesn't know if he is at the edge of the empire or smack dab in the nexus. He needs to spend a book worth of time doing recon work. It wouldn't make for a very action packed book, but that seems like the necessary next step.

I would alternate repairs on the two jump ships with strikes on Jung ships in surrounding systems. I would also deploy the Falcon squadron as recon ships, and gather intel quickly. Lastly, I would look for opportunities to drop a KKV here and there.

Along those lines, it would appear that the NAU (and SAU) are going to be the dominant players left on Earth, as they ONLY got bombarded three times instead of the rest of the world's four. Telles has been complaining that the people of Earth are divided and had self-serving divided governments. What kind of state will come 'out of the ashes'? Probably not one friendly to the Jung...

Other speculations:
With a number of jump fighters, the area can now be reconnoitered. The fleeing Jung ships should be able to be tracked down and terminated with extreme prejudice. The fleeing Jung general could have reached Alpha Centauri so it and the battle platform are also on the hit list. A scan around Tennari (sp) is in order so they don't get surprised either. After that, they'll have some time to learn about the enemy and make a plan to prosecute the war. Spec-ops now has a way to insert and recover operatives but it isn't clear what they need to learn.

With some interrogation tests being done on the Jung captives, I suspect they all have been artificially psychologically conditioned (similar to the G-men).

Hamsterman

ok its now known jung move at 20 light at FTL, so the wisest move would be repair all ships and then make a strike into alpha centauri wiping out the jung battle platform there. its already been stated alpha was a highly industrial system, and could easily be set to order.

there is now plenty of material in orbit of earth to run the fabricators at 110% including making more fabricators. two battleships numerous gunboats the frigates and cruisers debris fields.
this gives material for mini zped jump drives and even more fabricated falcons would be good. there could also still be hidden eagles on earth and since the fighter tubes are for plasma cannons now fighters can still launch off the flight decks, when the aurora and celestia jump to other systems for preemptive strikes.

One has to wonder if with earth decimated it may be wiser to mover operations to Tanna and just leave 6 Falcons to do recon and run for help. Of course that is after clearing that platform from AC.

As has been stated many times in the books, logistics wins wars, and earth supplies none at this point.

With only four books left in Part-1 I don't think that we are going to see the Jung defeated within this season.
Would feel a bit too rushed.

Therefore my far fetched Guess:

Ep12 - Repairs / First offensive towards Alpha Centauri / Kidnapping of Abby and her Family
Ep13 - Spy Network and jumping between Tanna + Earth and Alpha Centauri
Ep14 - Spy Network + Rescue of Abby and here Kids (Husband died) from a Battle Platform / General Bacca Dies.
Ep15 - Earth recovered to a level where they can help again / Battle against First Jung Jump Crouiser / Phentaurus feels threatened and starts its War Machine (Ship Production) on Massive Scale

Part 2
15 Books of War between the Phentaurus Cluster - Earth Aliance and the Jung.
(Ending it with splitting the Jung Homeworld in twain)

Part 3
15 Books of Star Trek style Diplomacy, Since and Humanitarian Aid Missions. Some Pirates Chasing, A Jung sleeper Cell, ... ending with Alien First Contact.
(There doesn't have to be War all the time to keep it interesting)

Part 4
....

So much has happened to the Earth since its liberation. I feel like more help is going to come from the PC, possibly even the asteroid base from the PC given the hints in this episode. They have allot of resources floating around in space but what they don't have is personnel. They could get and should get as many able bodies from Tanna but that might be limited since Garrett was killed on the battleship. Also in the next book I think that Nathan will enlist and commision the entire fleet, including the Tannans and Corinari and Takarans that are remaining. Since his father instructed him to do so. Like others have said before me I think that EP12 will be about alot of building and repair work and enlistment into the Alliance. I would personally like to see Nathan rise in rank so that Cameron can become a Captain, but I feel that wont happen until Part 2 of the series. I feel that we will learn more about Dubnyk and find out who he really is. Some have speculated that he is the Jung creator and others feel he is the creator of the Bio-Digital Plague but we will find out. Alot has to happen in this next book, the series is coming to a close. I really hope that they go on the offensive. It was such a pleasure to read the offensive in "Head of the Dragon" and see them actually starting to do damage. Also I hope more Ghatazak come from the PC. Telles needs more soilders. Who knows, Nathan might even take a trip back to the PC for a quick chat with Casimir.

As far as the Aurora and Celestia being "mini-carriers" I don't think that will suffice. They no longer have fighter launch tubes. What I think should happen is that they Aurora and Celesita becomes more like a Cruiser or Destroyer type warship given their heavy weapon load as well as mounting ZPED for long distant, repeated jumps and possibly the placement of shields.

Now that is my two cents lol

I don't think they will be able to free Alpha Centauri. They may be able to remove the battle platform from space, but they just don't have the man power to attempt to remove the Jung foot soldiers. If PC sent 10,000 Ghatazak, then they might have the man power, but until then they have to rely on Tanna and Earth to provide the man power needed to liberate any other planets. This is where born of ashes might come into play. I think that after the bombardment of Earth, any able bodied man or woman that is not needed in rebuilding Earth, will enlist. I also don't think Earth was glassed. They launched some nukes, but I don't they they nuked everything. They would want to use conventional ordinance on areas where they could do the most damage. It takes 5 people to take care of one sick/injured person, so if they thought they could make more injures than deaths, they would of. What they probably didn't take into account, is the nanites. They would make even small injures heal allot faster than they should, if they can produce them.

That being said, I think what was found in the Darvano, has to be something that would complement 100x 402's sent to Earth. Maybe a Corinair built carrier from before Takara conquering Corinair. They couldn't of known that Aurora would have the space for the additional fighters, since they were fully manned or nearly, prior to engaging in battle around Earth. A nice jumpable multipurpose carrier with a full complement of fighters and room for troops would be just what they need to help them liberate a few planets.

Biggest problem with jump falcon is that sooner or later the Jung will get their paws on a jump drive. At which point the Alliance has major problems.

Imagine a battle platform jumping in above Takara? "Game over man, game over" to quote pfc Hudson.

And it is starting to look like the drives are in mass production in the PC. One has to wonder about somebody going on a road trip and running into the wrong crowd, even if unintentionally.

alpha centauri isn't one planet its multiple and they have populations that im sure will help fix the personel issue, not to mention have a resistance already in place that would go super active when the platform goes down.

Alpha Centauri is a brutal system for people. Alpha Centauri A is 110% sol size and 151.9% luminosity and is a spectral type G2 V. Apha Centauri B is 90% sol size and 44.5% Luminosity and is a spectral type K1 V. I don't know what G, K etc are, only that Sol is G0. They orbit a common center at between Saturn and Pluto distance from each other. Orbit takes 79.91 years. They have a companion star called Proxima Centauri that is 13,000 AU from them (about 400 Neptune orbits, 0.2 LY). It is a red dwarf (spectral class M5 Ve or M5 VIe) discovered in 1915 and is the second closest star to earth. (Sol is the closest). Apparently, they can barely see it. Mass is 129 Jupiters.

There is speculation that Alpha Centauri B has a planet that orbits in 3.236 days with a surface temp of 1500K.

I don't know where a planet could be set in that system and not roast humans during part of its year.

My speculation...

1. Karuzara goes to Earth, possibly with a LOT of people. This is the first time Earth really gets it that they have a lot of allies out there. When they hear the population of Takara, they are floored.
2. Josh and Loki get to spend a day on one of Earths beaches. Swimming ability non existent (when would that ever get learned?)
3. Someone builds and implements a jump courier drone. It stays out of normal lanes to reduce capture/loss
4. The Captain of the Avhedal wants to go to Earth. He gets his chance in this book. Besides, he needs to study tactics with Nathan and Cameron. All need to kick around ideas. The jump drive changes everything and everyone needs to adjust to that
5. Tugs daughter, Deliza, ends up either in Tannus or the Terran system, possibly in the military. Among other things, she wants to study under Dr. Sorenson
6. Dr Sorenson builds something, possibly several somethings that are very important. Maybe she does the message drone. Definitely make a jump shuttle or six
7. Tannus gets attacked but they are ready for them. Help can be had from earth in half an hour and from the Pentarus cluster in a little more time.

I'd love to hear how Celestia's regular, unshot up computers compare to the ones in the PC.

This needs preview and a better editor. If you don't know anything about html, it would be hard to use.

in regards to david, sol is a g2v not a g0 and has long been confirmed a match with alpha centauri. if you look up star spectral types you will see the chart of all classified stars, g k m etc and how each of our neighbors relates.
as alpha primary is brighter and bigger than sol, it explains how the habitable zone is at .9 to 1.5 au instead of 1.0 as it is for earth. .9 and 1.5 would be the minimum/maximum while 1.25 would be the optimal.

now alpha centauri is a binary system and centauri b does orbit the primary every 79 years,with a third lesser star as well known as proxima

the only issue is the Bb planet in a close orbit to the primary that has a surface temp of 1500 kelvin. other planets are suspected even one near the habitable zone of 1.25 au from the centauri primary with that being between earth and mars orbits relative.

now all this science is neat but of course we accord Ryk artistic license to give us our reading experience.

The Frontiers Saga website home page has a very interesting final paragraph.

"The Frontier Saga is a series of Science Fiction novels that cover a century of human adventures in space. Part one is 15 episodes, with each episode being released at regular intervals. All story arcs begun within a part are concluded during that part. There will be 5 parts to the series, with 15 books per part for a total of 75 episodes".

My take on this paragraph is that all 75 books will span no more than 100 years and that all the various arcs/thread/subplots that have stimulated our curiosity in the first 11 books will be revealed over the next 4 books. You don't make those kind of claims without having a fully developed master plan for each part with fine tuned goals for each episode. Ryk probably spent years just developing the MP and each episode arcs before ever writing Episode #1.

Many posts above are pretty good. While I agree with Bischof that the Jung are not defeated I think they do lose the Sol/AC quadrant of space.

My speculative speculations for Episode #12;

1. Devastation to Earth caused by the 4 Jung attacks is revealed (it's not pretty!). Recovery plans are put in place by the few functioning governments. All this is going to take time. Dayton Scott, president of both the NAU and Terran Union becomes the de facto leader of the world. The deep cover Jung on Earth try to assassinate him.
2. The 36 remaining Ghatazhak, with help from surviving EDF Specops coordinated by Jessica, are deployed to root out the Jung remaining on earth. A Ghatazhak training facility, headed by Master Sargent Jahal, is set up for Terran recruits.
3. We learn that the original 20 402's were transported to Sol in a jump equipped carrier as mentioned in Apoc's post above. The carrier is transporting all 107 402's that Commander Dumar procured and using the onboard fabricators are being refurbished/upgraded with jump drives by the Karuzari/ex-Corinarian crew. The ship is also equipped with Takaran designed FTL messenger drones (think KKV potential with these puppies). The Karuzaru astroid base remains safely in the PC - at least until the Jung arrive en-mass in Part 2. The remaining 16 402's are deployed on surveillance missions to locate the crippled Jung cruiser, 3 gunboats heading back to Alpha Centauri and any other Jung assets that were already in the Sol/AC quadrant of space.
4. A really P/O'd Gen Bacca is already back in AC. We find out what the Battle Station is carrying in its huge hangars. Gen Bacca receives FTL delivered battle reports from both the fleet and battle platform before they were destroyed. He starts planning the Jung response and asking for additional assets. Did I mention that he is really pissed??
5. The Aurora/Celestia are repaired and refitted with reduced (say 24 fighters each) airwings composed of remaining Talons/Eagles(12) and refurbished Falcons/402's(12). Josh and Loki are offered Falcons but decide to stay together as a crew. When located the Celestia is dispatched to destroy the crippled Jung cruiser and gunboats (hey there has to be some fighting). Both ships get shields powered by mini-zpeds. The shields are not powerful enough to be effective against the massive battleship/platform railgun slugs or HVM's but are good against smaller railguns, conventional missiles and Jung fighter weapons. They automatically deactivate 5 sec before a jump to prevent interference.
6. Tanna is part of the Alliance and with 100K Terrans on Tanna (Abby in particular), Nathan must protect that planet. We are introduced to new Tannan leadership. The Tannans begin fortifying the planets orbital defenses, expand its industrial capabilities to help Earth recovery and build frigate sized FTL warships. The Jung ships that were departing Tanna when the Falcon re-conned the planet return. The Aurora and Karuzari carrier airwing engage them. Mr. Dubnyk starts stirring the pot. I agree with Bischof post above, Abby and her Family are kidnapped.
7. In the PC, Prince Cashmir still struggles with the short-sighted Nobles. In particular he wants them to authorize sending more Ghatazhak to Sol. CDR Dumar continues to coordinate the Karusaru effort to help the alliance but Prince Cashmir is only so wealthy. Information being recovered from the Data Ark begins to shed light on technologies available at the time of the Bio-digital plague (wait for it in Part 2). It evens hints at where, why and how the BDP began.

Bottom line Ryk - whatever you write I'll enjoy reading!