I look at Dubnyk as a Stan Lee type character. Sorta like Ryk inserting himself in the story as a cameo..
As far as the Jung war goes it depends. I think they have lost 2 task forces to date. How many do they actually have? If they are effective in pacifying things inside their empire I how much of a Navy would they really need? Logistics and payroll and time cost a lot. I could see quite a few squadrons of frigates but larger ships, maybe not.
Ghatazhak YES send them all and allow them to help guard the ships and take out the Jung in Alpha Centare. I am kinda disappointed in this book. It was Ok not the greatest of the series. A good read but not the best.
Dubnyk I am VERY suspicious of him. I am not sure BUT I think he may have been involved with the Jung.
I look at Dubnyk as a Stan Lee type character. Sorta like Ryk inserting himself in the story as a cameo..
As far as the Jung war goes it depends. I think they have lost 2 task forces to date. How many do they actually have? If they are effective in pacifying things inside their empire I how much of a Navy would they really need? Logistics and payroll and time cost a lot. I could see quite a few squadrons of frigates but larger ships, maybe not.
How many systems do the Jung control???? They would Almost need a Task force for each system to keep them Pacified IMHO.
I would have to agree with Gary. So far, we have only seen or heard of fleets or groups of ships moving towards worlds they are going to conquer. It could be that they have fleets that are dedicated to conquering worlds, more advanced fleets dedicated to protecting their home world, and individual ships for maintaining control. It would explain their reason for building battle platforms, when it would be much easier to just build a few ships to do the same job. It doesn't matter if it is only gunboats or frigates that are maintaining control, since the conquered worlds don't have much of a chance to build space ships or other weapons in hiding from the Jung Soldiers stationed on the planet.
Read it. Finished it . Reviewed it on Amazon. 5 stars. Awesome read.
So what now? The captured battleship is gone. What of Garret and the Tannan crew? Tellas and co got out but did Garret? Given his position it's a great loss to Tanna. Would'll d this and the influx of Terrans cause trouble? Is Dubyk likely to stir the pot?
The loss of the Kar Jourag (reckon I've spelt that written wrong) and the ease of the OAPs destruction 2 books back shows just how defenceless static targets are. Would jumping the asteroid to earth not present another sitting duck? That said get some KKVs in game and the Jung will feel how it is to be on the receiving end.
Finally the arrival of the Falcons was great but I half expected a carrier built from an old freighter or such like to appear given Dumars shopping trips.
@Greg
Garrett and the Tannan crew are dead. The Tannans seems to take it as a war casualty (I say that because Mr. Brown did not make any comments about it while sending refugees to Tanna.)
You're absolutely right about static stations or ships, they are easy targets. That's why I think that if Duman equipped the Karuzari asteroid to send it Sol system it has to be parked at the Kuiper asteroid belt so it can be concealed,
IMO Mr. Brown decided to make some suspense about the reinforcements Earth will get from Takara. As we all know it takes some time to recharge before jump again (I'm talking about long jumps as Aurora and Celestia and we all know about the interference the ZPED have with the jump emitters). I don't believe the Falcon class fighters had jumped all the way from PC. That would be almost 1000 jumps. IMO they just made the last leg from their base, a spaceship or even the asteroid.
I have to congratulate Mr. Brown for this suspense (what Earth will receive as support from Tug and/or Mr Dumar?). Can't wait for the next episode.
I just have one comment to make to Mr. Brown. The tittle he'd chose does not reflect the content of the episode. "Born of the ashes" means reconstruction, not defense the last stand which is exactly the case here. How can you say you're born of the ashes while you are seeing Earth being glassed? Maybe this tittle would be more appropriate to episode 12, I don't know but this is my opinion.
Maybe by "Born of the Ashes" Mr Brown is referring to a war born of out of the ashes of a destroyed world.
I think they will end up parking the base in a vacant system, possibly the one they flew through with no fuel. Better to keep all the production assets concealed.
I really enjoyed episode 11 as all episodes and give it 5 stars however I have a little criticism for Nathan.
In this episode I think Nathan has militarily regressed and is too reactionary. After watching Corinair bombarded, removing the head of the dragon in episode 6 and watching General Bacca nuke Earth during his escape Nathan should have been on the same page as Lt. Telles a long time ago. The only solution for the Jung is a final solution so he better start planning it. After the resources the Jung have used so far Nathan should be scared senseless of the size and strength of their empire. The Jung have lost more ships in just this one sector than the Takarans ever had.
First order of business for the EDF and Earth is to build dozens of fabricators over the next month (whatever is left of Earth). The EDF should have all the resources it needs from the battle station they blew up. Build fighters, missles, mines, shuttles, zped engines, jump drives, etc. And figure out how to get shields and zpeds in the Aurora and Celestia. The last remaining Takaran battleship can jump with their zped. It seems Nathan loves waiting until the last second taking as much rail gun damage as he can before jumping so shields would be nice for the crew. There's got to be a quicker way to fires plasma torpedos and then jump than waiting for Nathan's verbal command.
Second order is to destroy the Alpha Centauri battle station. It'd be nice to see a KKV used again. I think Vladimir mentioned in a staff meeting how something jumped in behind the battle staion shields must be traveling with a lot of velocity to cause any damage. Sounds like a job for a KKV with a jump drive. Why bother trying to figure out how to make very small jump drives to fit on the missles. Make bigger missles or add more warheads. However, I'd be very reluctant to use anything with a jump drive that could malfunction and be captured by the Jung. Stick with ships for now.
I bet General Bacca is still alive and in Alpha Centauri.
Third order is intelligence on the Jung empire using all those Falcons. There has to be some survivors on that battle station to interrogate. Then start a covert guerilla war hitting targets without leaving a calling card. Let the Jung and the other Core worlds wonder what is happening for a while and they might eventually find some local support like they did on Tanna. Although Nathan should be slow in getting the core worlds involved and heed some of Dubnyk's advice because it could result in the death of millions of undefendable civilians. Some of those worlds may even prefer the Jung but their military still needs to be destroyed.
@Hans Ruopp: Simply because they steal the best tech doesn't mean there isn't some tech transfer in the other direction. One way to do that would be to send obsolete ships. Although, I suppose another way would be to send obsolete technology. The issue being if one is trying to limit the effectiveness of rebellions it would be easier to do by providing obsolete ships and such rather than allowing the planets to build ship yards capable of making obsolete ships (unless they are indeed very obsolete). What I'm getting at is that I suspect that there is probably something of a minimium (to ensure a certain level of productivity) and a maximum tech base (to limit effectiveness of rebellion) allowed for the each planet that is based on how close/loyal they are the Jung. It would be prudent for the Jung to allow the minimium to rise slowly over time. Although, I suppose this wouldn't exactly require the Jung homeworld to provide obsolete ships, especially if they decide to keep the tech difference between them and the others so high that even their ships that are decades or even centuries old would be considered too advanced. Rather inefficient to do things that way, but the Jung indeed certainly might.
@Greg: "Finally the arrival of the Falcons was great but I half expected a carrier built from an old freighter or such like to appear given Dumars shopping trips."
I'm not so sure about the 402s not not jumping all 1000 years themselves as they have much higher effective FTL speeds than large ships. At a jump every few seconds it would only take about an hour to cross the distance, and a jump every few minutes is only about 3 days. The jump flash is unlikely to be an issue as the 402s should have been rebuilt as dedicated jump fighter rather than re-purposed as the Falcon was. The result being better filtering on the jump flash and likely even higher effective FTL speeds than the Falcon, among likely other things.
That being said, I highly doubt that is all that was sent and the rest should be catching up relatively soon. Likely, in a few days or a few hours, depending on how effective their jump drives are.
Read it. Finished it . Reviewed it on Amazon. 5 stars. Awesome read.
Finally the arrival of the Falcons was great but I half expected a carrier built from an old freighter or such like to appear given Dumars shopping trips.
So did I But made out of the asteroid base instead
Things I wonder about based on Episode 11:
1 What is on the cover of the book? Is it a Defender Class ship? What connection to the Episode itself?
2 What happened to the KKVs (Takaran ftl message drones reprogrammed as a ftl kenetic weapon)? Seems like what should have been a perfect weapon to use against that maneuverable battle platform.
3 What all is on the way from Tug?
4 Can Earth remain habitable?
5 Will the Alliance take the offensive against the Jung?
6 Is Dubyk's real last name Jung? I don't like Dubyk.
7 Were there really only the 4 Ghatazhak suvivors of the captured battle ship? No Takarans? No Tannans? Seems extreme.
8 Will any Jung surrender or talk? Seems like the Tannans were an unhappy Jung client-state... Were there no similar crew in the Jung fleet ... people who might provide intelligence?
9 How are the Jung shields able to hold up to the new plasma weapons with so little trouble? Do the Jung also have ZPID technology too?
10. Do the Jung have an FTL communication device? Seems like the attack fleet knew EDF tactics.. How was that possible?
I have this love hate relationship with this series. I love reading the books so much that I finish them in a day and I hate waiting for the next installment.
I got a little choked up when Sgt. Weatherly and Abby got to meet their family. I was sicken by the way Lt. Telles had to kill the prisoners, the civilians and the Major---overkill if you ask me. That said the Jung certainly went over the top in trying to destroy earth for no apparent reason other then spite. I really hate those guys.
I worry about the story line and the future for Nathan Scott. I fear that he will not survive the end of the series. I am also worried that the Jung are going to get their hands on a jump ship, there are just to many of them built now to keep them out of the hands of spies. The amount of atomic destruction on the earths surface is just to great to make it habitable for several centuries, so what is to become of the 100,000 people of earth living on Tannan. How many Jung agents fled in the evacuation? How many Jung agents still live on Tannan. Spies were a big part of the earlier books no doubt they will play a role in the next 4 books. And as has been noted above Dubyk has an important role yet to play in the outcome of this series no doubt about that.
Episode 12 cannot be ready soon enough. I need to know what happens next.
The ship on the book cover is definitely the captured Jung battleship, You can see the damaged front on the prow where it was ripped away by Auroras jump allowing Tellas & co to board her.
The ship on the book cover is definitely the captured Jung battleship, You can see the damaged front on the prow where it was ripped away by Auroras jump allowing Tellas & co to board her.
I see it now!! Thank you.
I was sicken by the way Lt. Telles had to kill the prisoners, the civilians and the Major—overkill if you ask me. That said the Jung certainly went over the top in trying to destroy earth for no apparent reason other then spite. I really hate those guys.
I guess you haven't read or watched much footage from WWI or WWII. In a war where conquest or the defense of conquest, there are no stops to what you have to be willing to do to gain a victory over your enemy. The Jung don't care about the Earth. They just wanted it, because it was Earth. The data ark was even more incentive, but it wasn't needed. In the end, they could just repopulate the world.
One thing to note, not all of the bombs were nukes, so it should still be livable. It is the EMP weapons that will make it hard for the local population to recover. With all of the infrastructure destroyed, they will have to build everything from scratch.
Will any Jung surrender or talk? Seems like the Tannans were an unhappy Jung client-state… Were there no similar crew in the Jung fleet … people who might provide intelligence?
It isn't mentioned in the books, but I think the biggest different between the Takaran and the Jung, is that the Jung military only has people from the Jung home world in it. This would explain why, even after 1000 years, they are still out there stealing technology and conquering other worlds, instead of attempting to take over worlds diplomatically. Trade and welfare of their planets is not important, only the welfare and the prosperity of the Jung home world is important.
Telles killing the Major was the only thing that really bothered me. He was a commissioned allied officer. Summary execution of the enemy is one thing, of your own forces, quite another.
For the rest of it I think about the war in the pacific. No quarter was given.
