Well, that was interesting. We still don't know much about the Jung, but a number of open threads were closed up.
1. The Alliance now has a base of operations. It is not very secure but it is a backwater.
2. The Aurora and Celestia have had their rendezvous. Whether the Celestia can be recovered in time is unknown.
3. The Alliance has received complete 'big picture' data from the President.
One possible major unknown is still unresolved, which is that while the current Jung strength in the Sol system is known, the "OAP" was not mentioned. There is no battle platform near Earth--maybe it is a repair ship/mobile drydock not worth mentioning. Also, no further mention of any returning scout ships was made.
Some new plot complications have arrived:
1. The two people on Earth that have the 'big picture' have been captured, but are alive. One of them is Nathan's father.
2. Reinforcements are coming to Sol from Alpha Centauri
3. The mysterious Captain is now free, and appears to have mischief on his mind.
4. Some Jung have been captured, although nothing has been heard about them yet.
Last observation (for now):
The Greznik Lieutenant noted that the quality of the Jung troops are highly variable. If this is a true Empire, then this shouldn't be a surprise as the Romans provided a very good example. Garrison units are low quality, and are there to insure good behavior of the local government. Expeditionary forces are often made up of conquered people's units, as they do the fighting and dying. Home Guard troops are the elite, and are good enough to destroy the Expeditionary troops and keep them in line. They are rarely used. I would expect that both Expeditionary and some Guard units are on Earth.
And we now know that it was Eli that put Nathan on the Aurora and possibly the one that told the Jung where they would be.
I would have liked Nathan's dad to approve the battlefield promotions of the core crew of the Aurora. It would have solidified the who military rank question. As to denying the battlefield commander the knowledge of who both his enemy and Civilian authority is, well, I just say "Horseshit". Vietnam is an example of a war where the brass provided too much management and too little information to the guys on the ground.
And one big question ... Did the Celestia survive the explosion on Metis?
@Eric, well, I don't think they'll be providing too much oversight / management, here. Nathan is effectively the entirety of the United Earth government and military command structure.
It will be interesting to see, as Hamster mentions, whether they got the Celestia up and off the moon there to get it going out of the system. There is no way they had time to equip her with jump emitters and we've seen that towing doesn't really work when dealing with the jump emitters.
Eric,
Indeed. Although I'd be surprised if the data chip has no mention of names including the president. It's not as if there was time to meticulously scrub all references to him, so Ryk has an 'out' there. I'm also more surprised that the President was taken alive. Do Jung weapons have 'stun' settings?
Al,
Yes, it certainly looks like we now know that Eli is an evil sociopath who would murder his own mother, father, and brother. And yet, he was no good in politics...
Charles,
Metis isn't an asteroid. It is an inner moon of Jupiter. If a single cruiser tried to take on the Aurora, it would not have 'limped' back to Earth. In fact, any remaining Jung debris would have burned up in Jupiter's atmosphere... 🙂
Seriously, I think the Admiral was giving false information to various booby-traps, which is why he is now a candidate for what looks like some high-tech frontal lobotomy.
Charles,
I stand corrected, partially. There is ALSO an asteroid named Metis. Therefore, the Admiral may have both set up a trap on the asteroid Metis in the anticipation that the name might leak. Since the asteroid would be on the navigational charts, and the moon of Jupiter might not be (no one goes that close!) the Jung went to the wrong place.
If both the Admiral (top military) and the Pres (top civilian authority) have been captured by the Jung, then the resistance seems kind of headless. That will make it harder for it to do anything effective, and easier for someone (Na-Tan) to be appointed head of state when he clears the oppressors off of Earth...
But seriously, if Nathan cleared the ships and fighters and the Jung were left with only the troops they had brought along, it seems like the people of Earth could clear out the Jung in a fairly short amount of time. If the oppressors don't have air superiority, their time would be relatively short.
Are we all forgetting Mr. Debnyk? I was wondering about him the whole time reading the book and when we finally got him it just made me want to know MORE! Curse you Ryk for story blue-balling us!
Really loved this book and I am VERY interested in the Gatazhak Warriors now that we got Lt. Tennes as a POV.
Well, it is pretty devious to have two objects named the same name. The Admiral told them that Celestia was on Metis, but Metis blew up. They have the President now, so when they get the answer as to where Celestia is located, it is on Metis, which exploded when they attempted to get near it. The only answer the president will have is that Celestia's crew's orders were to destroy the ship if it looked like the Jung were to capture it. So the Jung will have to assume that the Celestia and the data ark have been destroyed when they attempted to get close to it, and the Admiral was telling the truth and should be kept alive.
