Will there be a release this month?
@pbanachi That is the plan right now. Not sure if there are any delays, but last word from Ryk was 3rd week of this month I believe.
@Aidan, @Justin & @Swordedge -
Never let it be said I didn't admit when I was wrong. I have decided KKVs may be what we are seeing, but for one visual reason that has not, to my knowledge, been mentioned. If you look at the nearer of the two BPs, there is a clear exit trail in line with the middle entry point. This, above all else, says to me "projectile".
Thanks again for the lively debate, and education.
Goose
Good call! Hadn't even thought of that. I do love discussions like this. As of late it seems that most disagreements tend to devolve into angry arguments online. I'm glad that people remain civil here and discuss things like adults.
That said, I'm gonna be totally miffed if the attacks were plasma. 😛
Good call! Hadn’t even thought of that. I do love discussions like this. As of late it seems that most disagreements tend to devolve into angry arguments online. I’m glad that people remain civil here and discuss things like adults.
That said, I’m gonna be totally miffed if the attacks were plasma.
LOL 🙂
Been thinking about KKV's being easy to dodge, and thought... why not turn them into cluster bombs for those slightly less-likely shots. at X distance from target release multiple warheads to strike or detonate by time/proximity to deal AOE damage.
Wait... no if the KKV hits, than those warheads are useless, and if the KKV misses... chances are the warheads will too/ won't be enough to kill a BP... and could hit something else like a school/nun shuttle bus... never mind, bad idea.
I think that we will be up to at least 50 Falcons by the end of Ep.13.
I think Lt Hayes will have a fighter wing the "Rings of Haven".
I think that Scott and Dumar will have strong words about strategy, and what Scott can live with doing.
I think that after Kent, Dumar might suggest destroying a planet or two to make the Jung refrain from destroying anymore worlds that they could draw on. If your enemy is destroying your supply depots, you need to start protecting them better (can't just let any admiral with a spare battleship drop an antimatter reactor into civilisation.)
What does everyone think will be said in the big sit down strategy meeting???
50 Falcons would be amazing, but I don't know if Scott knows how to use them effectively. Right now he just throws them at problems to be blown up. I'm more hopeful for an actual shielded warship, preferably with every external surface covered in canons. 🙂
I do not think they will blow up planets. Right now industry is what they need. They would never destroy something so useful.
I'm pretty sure the strategy meeting will lay plans for hunting out the spy. For example, I could see them saying "We're going to take out the BP in system X", then have the suspected spies all be given a specific task to see that through. Then Scott and Nash just watch the 'fake' plan play out and see which crew members task springs the trap. While all this is going on Dumar has the semi-hobbled Celestia jump out and drop off the KKV's to take out the two BP's we see being destroyed on the cover.
If this may help put the language issue to rest . . . having been a de-frocked altar boy, I did not use language in the "Saga" books.
Having retired from the Marine Corps after 30+ years as a "Mustang" Captain, . . . the use of "Fuck" was way ahead of anything else.
I don't know why I assumed that the Celestia would be in perfect working order in a few weeks... last time we saw a ramming indecent Kent died.
If this may help put the language issue to rest . . . having been a de-frocked altar boy, I did not use language in the “Saga” books.
Having retired from the Marine Corps after 30+ years as a “Mustang” Captain, . . . the use of “Fuck” was way ahead of anything else.
I'm a retired BMC from the USCG,(also 4yrs Navy-total of 26yrs) that is one of the most used words in the military, especially when the shit hits the fan.
People that were never in the military will never understand it. Pretty sure that part will never change.
With the fabrication of communication satellites by the Zaruzara is it possible that we will we see Nathan personally meet with the families of his fallen Earth crews? or at least see that someone is doing this... because people died, and that needs to be happen.
I would like to see Porto Santo (or other base) become an Alliance training facility for potential fleet crew members (we need to see cadets being brought up from Earth, not just brought in from the PC again and again), also what happened to the recruits from liberation? Was it just the Intripid's crew were taken on? what happened to the rest? It could be cool to have it mentioned that someone was a great find and is really doing a great job setting up a training camp etc.
An Earth based Admiralty (promote Rocelle in the old "up and out" style) we need a planetary military leadership and Scott's busy.
I would be ok with Dumar being the local Alliance military leader and taking on cadets to train on the Zaruzara for the Falcons & ship crews, but we need to see training!!!
I would like to see Admiral Gillardi again. There is more to that man. I don't care if he is bat-shit-crazy after what the Jung did to him. Nanites and some Corinarin Candles and he will be the business again.
A Spec Ops command structure. I would like someone in Spec Ops from earth with a higher rank then Jess... because she is 24-25 and its insulting to think that the Spec Ops people on Earth aren't ranked as high.
I think we are due a run down on available assets. For instance what fighters do we still have access too? what number of Eagles and Takaran/Corinari fighters without jump drives do we still have? were any of them in the starboard fighter alley of the Aurora when they got blown open in Ep.12?
I think that when they are available the Celestia should have at least a pair of Falcons assigned to her.
Will we see the emergence of Tannan warships? We know they have captured Jung Fighters, what is happening with them?
(It would be cool if former corrinari personnel stopped off at Tanna to train Tannan pilots in dog fighting and in time to have them be delivered to combat by the Celestia or other ships)
I think it could be cool if Tanna had an old interplanetary ship converted into a light carrier for their Jung fighters, I'm sure that the alliance could spare a jump drive for a Tannan Space Command. I like to imagine it could be used as back up for core worlds liberation efforts.
I would understand if we don't see any warships just yet as most of their resources are going toward aid for Earth. but I would like to at least have a falcon report that Tanna has Fighters on patrol/etc
Aidan,
Nathan's Sister and Nathan have been talking to families as the locate them, Miri even said when she gave her first report to Nathan that she wanted to make sure the families of the dead were notified. She is acting in an official capacity in this. Porto Santo is going to be used to train the earth based ground forces as discussed in the end of the last book, and it makes more sense since most people able or willing to work in space have volunteered through the recruitment centers and Tanna or the asteroid are much better equipped to train fleet personnel leaving Porto Santo to focus on the ground forces, given the state of the Earth at this moment that is a much more pressing need. At this moment there are 3 and only three senior ranking military people who have extensive knowledge and experience in running a Jump capable military (Nathan, Cameron, and Dumar, 4 if you include Telles), there are no senor leadership staff around, except Admiral G, who was rung out during interrogation, which would not make him suitable for leading at this point. Though i think his condition may be exaggerated by the President who i am pretty sure is the spy by way of conditioning (in my opinion) so he may still be recoverable. As far as spec ops, Jess is not in command of all spec ops, though she is highly ranked at this point, she is just one of the few surviving in space, the rest are on earth getting rid of the Jung, where their skills are much better used at this point, and spec ops would still be under the command of Dumar, who quite frankly has much more experience and training in spec ops than probably anyone left alive on earth. We know the asteroid has around 100-200 (cant remember the exact number that Tug bought) falcons in various states of disrepair, and the other space vehicles get run down pretty much every briefing before and after the battles. The celistia has fighters based on it, well they did until they were beaten up pretty badly in the last book, there is no reason to think they wont be stationed there again. Tanna has no ship building infrastructure, so warships will be a while, though using Tanna as a fighter training area is a good idea.
My speculations:
1. The Avendahl jumps to Earth, either because Casimir/Tug convinces her bored captain to do so, or because he assumes command rank within the Takaran armed services and takes command of the vessel.
2. Somebody finally realizes that Tanna is their only readily accessible industrialized support (and source of propellant), and the new home of hundreds of thousands of refugees from Earth, and decides to commit at least one ship (probably either the Celestia or the asteroid base) to defending it from any Jung ships that pass through.
3. A Jung ship randomly arrives in Tanna for refueling and/or routine patrol, and must be fought off. This will either be a successful battle if #2 happens, or a complete massacre of everyone on Tanna if not.
4. The moralizing over using KKV's stops, someone realizes how stupid it is not to press the advantage before all the nearby Jung forces get word, and the jump-scouts are used to systematically and simultaneously destroy the nearby battle platforms (and possibly battleships), 3 at a time, using multiple KKV's launched from the edges of a system towards the battle platforms along trajectories that don't risk intercepting with any inhabited objects in the system, and timed to arrive before the light from the launching scout craft reaches the battle platform or any intermediate observers along the way.
5. General Bacca escaped from the battle platform, either shortly before its destruction or at either of the two times it was forced out of FTL and attacked, or at some point after it started evasive maneuvers to prevent any further intercepts. He is successful in warning some new Jung outpost; or possibly their homeworld.
6. The predictable repairs and upgrades for the Aurora, probably including shields and at least one new experimental superweapon that's designed to either deplete Jung shielding more effectively or bypass it completely. Repairs and upgrades for the Celestia as well, though possibly not the replacement of the missing forward sections, thereby converting the Celestia into a more agile destroyer (with a smaller target profile) and completing the repairs in less time.
7. The identity of the spy is revealed. Roselle is the obvious choice, but seems too obvious. Nash (Captain) is another possibility, perhaps with the revelation that he deliberately sabotaged his Captain's stasis tube, ensuring that he'd be able to assume command if/when awakened.
8. Much better use of jump-combat tactics? For instance, by jumping 6 light-minutes away, firing for one minute, and then jumping 5 light-minutes away, firing, and jumping; repeat until a final jump into close-range, allowing all of the old light and energy weapons projectiles to hit the target simultaneously and making it difficult to know which target is the real one (or how many ships are actually attacking). I'd like to think this would happen. But that fact that it hasn't so far leaves me expecting that it will not.
9. That old guy pulled out from cryogenic storage is revealed to have some more important role, perhaps as the engineer of the plague that wiped out Earth, or as the original founder of the Jung, or maybe something less dramatic. Possibly he betrays (or tries to betray) the people of Tanna for his own gain.
10. The Jung homeworld is located, and deliberately infected with the plague to bring about the end of the war (or else, obliterated with KKV's). Probably not in the next book, but possibly in the last one. Or some spoiler ending happens, where some much larger and previously unknown threat emerges that requires the Jung to team up with the Alliance. Though I hope that won't be the case. Dumar is already a bit too much of a karma Houdini for my liking. The last thing the story needs is a whole empire of them.
11. The Jung capture a jump drive from somewhere, and a mission has to be hastily launched to recover/destroy it. Or else this becomes the event that ultimately precipitates #10 because there's no way to track down the stolen jump drive.
All good points, and many of them will probably be in there. I'm just focusing on other things and trying to not obsess over this... By hitting refresh over and over on this page. What the hell is wrong with me? What, specifically, is it about Ryk's writing that does this to us? We have all read plenty of other stuff. What is the secret sauce that Ryk has discovered here?
