cthia wrote:Nobody thinks Tsang was capable of such horrid acts. I do, she's Solarian by birth isn't she? I don't think she WOULD have, mind you. But who knows what she would have done in a moment of temporary insanity at the blatant proof of Beowulf's treason.
See the argument above of self-preservation. Arrogant officers prone to fits of hysteria when the world doesn't submit to their will are also those most likely to be cowards and run when faced with someone who stands up to them.
She'd have to retain enough of her rationality to redirect her forces from hyper into the inner system, an hour after learning that Manticoran forces were in the system. Her rage would have cooled down a little.
More importantly, she has to convince her staff and her subordinate COs, even ship captains to do her bidding. There's no way she could justify this besides an Edict Violation. Those officers would be looking out for their own hides, as an EEV hearing would try to determine why they carried out blatantly illegal orders. We've seen enough SLN officers either having doubts about Parthian Shot or disagreeing with its implementation, to know that statistically she'd have some of those arguing with her. And that is with carefully written orders from higher up that tried to hide the violation by limiting the targets, not spur-of-the-moment reactions that targeted the planets.
Finally, the BSDF and GA had the file on Tsang. If they thought she was this unstable, they might have acted differently.
Like I said in a certain thread, if the League doesn't suspect Beowulf for the leak, then the gorilla really needs to get out of the ONI game.
Suspecting is one thing. Proving is quite another. We don't know what other suspects they had. The RMN might have had infiltrated spies in the SLN for a long time. They actually probably do. The leak could also have come from one of their own, pillow-talking or just trying to get a good hook-in for a book deal. Given the amount of leaks and self-interest going on the SLN, this is very possible. It could also have come from one of a huge number of contractors and suppliers who were supporting the operations. Filareta didn't seem too surprised when he discovered his OpSec had been violated, after all.
So I don't see any reason why the Beowulf government should be at the top of the list of suspects.
Tsang's "courtesy" of informing the BSDF she was going to transit proves that, at least as late as Tsang's departure from Sol, the SLN did not suspect Beowulf to be anything but a loyal subject member who would do exactly what it was told.
But! It all became a moot point when Tsang found out about all of the Manty infrastructure that existed in the system. Compounded when Manty ships came out of the closet. I have to sympathize with Tsang. Beowulf ordered up a freighter full of nerve.
Before anyone sharpens their forks, I'm aware the author corrected us on the fact that Beowulf was not under any obligation to share her military secrets with the League.
I hardly think the gorilla would feel that way. Certainly not on the spot while face to face with Beowulf's intransigence and treason; incontinence and lack of reason.
AFTER the Second Battle of Manticore and especially the calling for the independence vote, yes. The Mandarin-supporting and MAlign-controlled media was painting Beowulfans as traitors and the penalty for treason is usually death.
BEFORE that, no.
DURING is the question, And I maintain that Tsang, not being equipped for nor having orders to carry out such a mission, could not have achieved it. She would not extrapolate from her orders nor would she risk her own safety in so doing.
Disclaimer: I'm speaking on behalf of rabid Solarians everywhere. In no way does this represent an overall view of my own.
Again, this is the AFTER. The media had not painted Beowulfans as traitors and fed the frenzy until after the battle.
One more detail: when you say "rabid Solarians everywhere," that assumes facts not in evidence that they were rabid everywhere. We know that intra-Kuiper the MAlign-controlled media machine did paint Beowulf as traitors. Elsewhere? We don't know for sure, but available evidence seems to suggest the message could be very different. First, the fact that the author took the time to make the intra-Kuiper and beyond-Kuiper distinction. Second, Hypatia's independence. Third, the fact that the Mandarins felt necessary to coerce systems into not supporting the GA -- true, they were attacking non-members until Hypatia, but they were inside nominal League space, so one could assume they consume much of he same news as other member worlds.
So the Mandarins may have thought that there were "rabid Solarians everywhere" when they ordered Fabius, but that was only their skewed view from Old Chicago. They were out of touch with reality.
