Hi The E,
Kudos for the good points as usual, and to everyone else for theirs as well.
Cthia seems to have forgotten the whole point Lacoon I & II was possible in the first place is because the RMN knows to SL termini are undefended [including the local ACS stations] because it has almost 5 centuries of data to prove that's the case.
Remember also how old Case Lacoon is, (around a couple of centuries apparently) when the RMN was far smaller, yet Lacoon I; providing the MMM a secure safe exit from the SL, was always considered fairly easy, mainly because the SLN response time was too great and the local forces to small to effectively interfere with the RMN forces dispatched; ie they probably being as large as needed to intimidate them as necessary, ie heavy cruisers versus light cruisers or destroyers, battle-cruisers against heavy cruisers etc.
Pang Yau-pau had 2 Sag-C's, a Roland and the older Chanson DD class Othello, then [until retconned] just over twice the tonnage of Chalker's 6 Rampart DD's [@97,000 tons = 582 KT to 1240 KT] which is the only thing Chalker probably understood, probably because the fact that Pang's actual combat superiority was orders of magnitude greater was incomprehensible to him.
Aside: the fact that the Rampart DD's are so much bigger that the Chanson's [85 KT in OBS] that were RMN state of the art in 1901 is an interesting factoid, and makes one wonder how big the 'War Harvest' class is tonnage wise when other references imply they're a bit smaller than the comparable RMN types.
Again, the SL is far too big, NTM too powerful for anyone to ever dare interfere with any part of it, so why bother providing any kind of expensive defenses?
Given the corruption now evident in 7th Fleet for a dozen years or so, those SLN officers stuck at an ACS were probably skimming along with everyone else.
Again kudos to all the responders.
L
The E wrote:cthia wrote:How was Commander Pang Yau-pau able to gain control of ACS without a fight? A navy can't just have control of its terminii handed over so easily for the asking. Now I know that ACS is a civilian agency in the RMN and you can't expect them to resist force. Yet I don't imagine that control of a Manty ACS is going down like that.
I am not sure what sort of ships Yau-Pau was commanding at the time, but I am pretty sure that he is more than capable of overpowering any picket force. I think it's like tellers at a bank being ordered to comply with robber's demands; it's easier to give in to their demands now and wait for proper relief forces than it is to throw away ships and lives in a pointless attempt at resistance.
The other thing to keep in mind is that while a normal wormhole terminus is a very important strategic concern for the system it is in, none of the other termini or junctions come close to being as important for their systems as the MWJ is for Manticore. The only reason Laocoon could work is because the wormholes in SLN space aren't picketed or fortified heavily, after all.
I assume that since OFS hand-picked the staff, that they were not civilian in nature in the League, or at least in this instance - which suggests that ACS would not have been so easily handed over to neobarbs by arrogant OFS officers who detest everything Manticoran without a fight. Which would have forced the Manty commander to fire on a civilian platform.
If the choice is between getting killed in a hail of pulser fire or by contact nuke and complying until relief forces can arrive, what do you think a solarian officer is going to do? Especially one described as being more than a little corrupt?
Do you honestly expect any SLN officer in such a position to go all "for the honor of the flag!"?
I guess I'm shocked that control of one (of the League's so few) terminii can be so easily obtained.
Why? The SL didn't have any wars inside its territory for close to a millennium, as anyone knows that Ýou Do Not Mess With The League. As an analogy, consider a busy highway crossing. Sure, if some gang decided to take it over and impose tariffs, they could do that, but only for as long as it takes to mobilize a sufficiently large police force. There's no need to post armed guards at the crossing, because everyone knows that trying something stupid like taking it over is a quick trip to the morgue.
What thorny question is that?
I'm guessing he doesn't want to be yelled at by the SLN idiots for whatever he had to do. Maybe he just handcuffed them all in a cargo hold, maybe he ordered them to get to the escape pods and get off that way, it doesn't really matter. If the SLN commander doesn't care about their safety, well, that probably says more about the SLN and how much it cares about its people than it does about Yau-Pau's conduct.
