My incoherent ramblings,
I think they will jump the Celestia back to Tanna. Either they will piggyback which is most likely or they will install the emiters they replaced on the Aurora.
With the Celestia being largely unfinished I think there will be a much larger chance of installing more new tech than is currently on the Aurora.
They will send the super jump shuttle back to the Pentaris cluster with the data cores(Probably get a few more mini ZPEDs but not much else for a while).
I think that they could definately use the com drones to hit several battle platforms around the same time(That would totally screw with the Jung).
I do think the Avendahl will make an appearance but probably not till book 14 or 15.
They are going to have to merge crews so that the Celestia has people with combat experience. I think Cameron will captain the Celestia at least temporarily till the commander has been in a few engagements.
They are going to have to start increacing the amount of ships they have. If they are able to piggyback the Celestia back to Tanna that opens up the ability to disable and steal some Jung ships.
I think that the Jung wont be defeated by the end of book 15 but probably kicked off Earth.
I think the Jung will aquire jump technology and that will really change how battles are fought in the next series.
I do think Tony is the spy. That base was safe till he got there. Someone had to have given away their position and he is the obvious choice.
I would like to see them set up a ship building facility and start constuction of some new ships. I think they would have to be smaller hit and run type ships simply to make them easier and faster to build.
I would like to Cameron get captain of a new ship. Maybe a captured jung cruiser.
They might bring in the Takaran programmers who work on those special forces (Gak something) to be deprogrammers. It said that their programming technique is not perfect though, so I don't know if the deprogramming would work.
As a former Marine, I don't see anything wrong with the Gatakan programming. 🙂
I don't know how practical it would be to move an asteroid, but I think it might be a good idea to send the rebel asteroid in the Corinari system to Tanna. Attach engines, a navigation system, and the jump emmitters. Give enough thrust to nudge the asteroid in the right direction and then multi-jump. Corinari is probably still in a heavy recovery mode, so they might not be able to give up the production capability of the asteroid. However, between the Corinari and the Takarans, they might be able to stock one of the other hollowed out asteroids with the materials needed for a similar base. Even if they don't build the base, just sending it to the Aurora will be a big help. If placed near Tanna, the Aurora can have a fueling station and a repair/refit station.
Also, I think the Aurora could use at least a couple more jump capable shuttles from the Pentarus Cluster. If the Aurora retrieves the crew from the Intrepid to staff the Celestia, two shuttles will be really impractical for getting to and from Earth with so many people in a timely manner.
Right now, the fastest Jung FTL we know about are the gunboats at 20C. That doesn't mean that they don't have a faster type of ship or comm drone. If they don't, then it takes nearly 2 months to contact Alpha Centauri, and then another 3-4 months for a cruiser or cruisers to come back. It would take two and a half years for the events in Tanna, in the fringe, to reach Earth, in the core.
So, I see it quite possible for earth to be liberated, and hold off counterattacks, but it would be a slow grind to peel the Jung back from other systems, and the Earth (after the invasion) is in no economic position to do it. It also isn't clear how Jung authority is distributed, so any decision to make a peace treaty could take a while. It could even be a plot point of having the Jung hierarchy agree to peace terms, and then having events overcome it before it reaches the front (Think Babylon 5, where the Centauri Emperor is set to make a public apology for the occupation of the Narn homeworld, and he has a heart attack on the way to the speech, and thus a war is not averted).
Jason,
If the Jung get jump technology then it is game over for Earth. They would be able to jump to their various worlds, sharing the tech, and then after a refit a few hundred cruisers might arrive at Earth. Hopefully, the rebel was correct in that the Jung aren't really tech savvy, and so they'd have to take what they manage to capture to another planet to reverse engineer it.
Right now the Jump drive is the EDF's only major advantage. Once the Pentaurus cluster starts sending ships, then ZPED and shields come into play.
Oh yeah, I keep forgetting to mention that I hope the Aurora visits Alpha Centauri, since there are still UEA ships watching the system. It would be another source of experienced earth crew, plus another source of ships for the Alliance.
Lively conversation - thanks all!
I'm beginning to see Dubnyk as a red herring - old, frail, and alienated in this world from the one he knew, I see why Ryk evac'd him to the planet, to end that story-thread.
Tony as a spy? Must be some good Jung 're-education' or programming. The young man can't even shoot straight, or, get out a kill-zone in an ambush. But, I could fathom some sort of tagging on him by Jung Security.
I'm a little curious about the Jung. Are they one of the lost human 'tribes' caused by the bio-plague, or something new. My guess is something along the AsianOriental, hence the Jung descriptor. Having Ryk lay a few words on this would answer the questions. They have to be human-esque, since they managed to infiltrate Earth and other installationsgroups. Plus, it would be a pretty good lead-in for the next group of books.
The next few books should be very interesting.
After going through all that to survive, I am sure Dubnyk is't done. His body may be frail, but his mind seems sharp as before. Think C. Montgomery Burns. All he needs is a Smithers to act upon his will and he will be destroying land and irradiating people in no time.
If Tony is tagged in some way, it might allow Jung shipboard guns to target the Aurora really well, even as she jumps around. Could be interesting.
Pretty sure the Jung had blond hair in the one description we saw. I bet Ryk is modelling them more on "Nazis in space" than on Flash Gordon and Emperor Ming.
What if the Jung HAVE setup Comm Drones? How does that affect the strategy to re-take the Core? And I doubt their technology will ALL be inferior. They have all the pieces of the civilization that was there before. They even have Earth now, and all the tech the Earthlings publicized from the Data Arc. The Jung could very likely have some pieces that are better than what the Aurora has. Ship-to-Ship Mind Control Ray? Infantry immobilizing fart gun? FTL kinetic kill needle missiles?
At the very least, the Jung have to have some extensive shipyards somewhere in order to build those large battle platforms.
I'm with Eric on this one. Being a former Marine as well 🙂 Semper Fi!
As a former Marine, I don’t see anything wrong with the Gatakan programming.
I’m with Eric on this one. Being a former Marine as well
As a former Marine, I don’t see anything wrong with the Gatakan programming.
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I thought once a Marine, always a Marine? In any case, thanks for your service.
I believe the separation is "ex-Marine" versus "former Marine". You're never an Ex-Marine.
At least that is what I have been told. I don't give it much thought. I still wear a "high and tight" haircut for the most part. I'm in a computer security function at work and the attitude, demeanor, & haircut all work for me so I go with it.
Weird that we let (or even encourage) our perceptions to be filtered by a small stretch of time. I'm 50, was only in for 6, but I have been conducting myself in "that manner" despite being out for over 25 years now.
Eric,
Now that I remember, I think you are absolutely correct. Jack Smith, whose columns on daily life I read growing up, recounted that he once said he was an ex-Marine (he was a battlefield correspondent on Iwo Jima, among other things). His old CO chided him with "once a Marine, always a Marine", and his response was "Sir, you are looking at one ex Marine!"
So, to bring this back on topic, my further speculation is that we are NOT going to have any members of the press or battlefield correspondents until/unless the war on Earth bogs down. How's that? 🙂
If this were real, the messy truth would be that there would be a certain percentage of the Earth's population that want to remain loyal to the Jung. They might have contracts to supply the troops, or maybe just like the style of government, but that percentage would make it more difficult to defeat the Jung than simply destroying their military assets.
On the other hand, the population of the Earth really seems to be overwhelming when compared to the relatively small number of troops that the Jung could possibly have brought with them.
In my first post here, I said "There are (soon) going to be two ships that look like the Aurora…" implying there might be confusion for the Jung about the location of the Aurora.
I have been thinking about the subject. Anyone read Tom Clancy's 1980s thriller "Red Storm Rising"? Even back then, the US Navy's sonar was getting good enough to not only identify which class of enemy sub was out there, but could identify which specific hull it was, just by small deviations in hull shape and cavitation sound differences.
It is not 100% the same, but the example is close enough. The implication is that the Jung will probably not be confused by two hulls that look similar.
