Manticore bolt hole

[deowll]

The first thing I guess I need to say is that Manticore is surrounded. This
makes it unlikely that it could locate a truly isolated location to stick
such a place. In a way I guess Grendlesbane was their nearest approach to
that.

That leaves me with what other locations might have ship yards?

Talbot has yards but they aren't anywhere near building cutting edge
hardware though I still think they could do some useful fabrication such as
hull parts for such. Other than maybe a military repair ship they most
likely don't have anything all that cutting edge but Spindle would have been
a location that the Manticorian merchant houses would have wanted to put a
repair facility that could work on their ships. I'd say the odds are
excellent that something is there or was in the process of being built that
can work on Commercial shipping. There is a second issue. All the ship
building facilities in Manticore keep getting grabbed for military
production. In order to get manufacturing and repair work done Spindle is
the best option I can come up with as a location for the Merchant houses to
upgrade in order to take care of the problem unless they were making use of
yards in Beowulf. I suppose there may be something in the system with the
weird sentients but I'm not sure they would be allowed to exploit the
resources in that system.

Trevor's star had a military repair facility. I'm not sure how much high
tech manufacturing there was but DW did miss something here because there
definitely should have been some. They were nowhere near as outdated as
Talbot and they've had several years to play catch up. They weren't
attacked. That means a bit more of the Star Kingdom's manufacturing base
should still be around than indicated.

In Silesia there should be several yards that are operating at more or less
the same standard as the League. They have their own local manufacturing.
They absolutely should be able to provide a lot of what is need to get
Manticore's space stations/manufacturing centers back on line.

However back in HH's pirate chasing days she freed a system just outside
Silesia and they made some sort of deal with the Star Kingdom for a base. I
don't recall hearing anything else about it since but it would have been
used as a staging base for the Star Kingdom in Silesia. It stands to reason
this place would/should have had been provided with some sort of fortress,
supply and repair center because it was the only option and they were a long
way from home. At the time I thought it offered about as much potential as
Grayson. I'm not sure if anyone is going to remember it exists or not. This
system is one of the few options for the Manticorian merchant houses to have
done some major expansion outside of Manticore. I would have expected it to
get developed to some degree. It is a logical location for a repair center.

I'm not sure if Manticore could purchase high tech manufacturing equipment
from their former Allies in Endicott or not however the people in Endicott
do seem to have a great deal of respect for money. In fact it would not
shock me if they turn out to be supplying military hardware including two
stage missiles to all sorts of people besides Maya. Interestingly Mesa
doesn't seem to have penetrated them as much as I would have expected
because they don't seem to have stolen all their tech. It may be that Mesa
is badly underestimating both how much military hardware and the quality of
said hardware some of these people have. Um, I think Mr. D thinks the ships
that took out his expedition to Torch were part of the Endicott fleet?

I'm not sure what they could buy from Beowulf or other League members
either. It would not shock me if a ship load of something ended up in the
Manticore system from sources unknown by a roundabout route. Two ships meet
up by the big asteroid in an uninhabited system and swap cargos or some
such.

The problem is going to be making the equipment to make the really cutting
edge equipment DW is going to insist on.

DW had a Manticore character say that various repair ships and such were
scattered around and those could be brought back home however even the
equipment at Trevor's star was not designed for the heavy use they were now
going to be subjecting it to.

[Don Sample]

Post by deowll
However back in HH's pirate chasing days she freed a system just outside
Silesia and they made some sort of deal with the Star Kingdom for a base. I
don't recall hearing anything else about it since but it would have been
used as a staging base for the Star Kingdom in Silesia.

That would be Sidemore, where she got posted back to in "War of Honor"
and kicked Lester Tourville's ass in their second encounter.

[deowll]

Post by Don Sample

Post by deowll
However back in HH's pirate chasing days she freed a system just outside
Silesia and they made some sort of deal with the Star Kingdom for a base.
I
don't recall hearing anything else about it since but it would have been
used as a staging base for the Star Kingdom in Silesia.

That would be Sidemore, where she got posted back to in "War of Honor"
and kicked Lester Tourville's ass in their second encounter.

Thank you.

DW did have the Queen suggest tech sharing with Haven which could result in
Bolt Hole manufacturing some much more advanced hardware. The problem is
that due to the distances I wouldn't expect much to show up in less than a
year if they use Bolt Hole to make it rather than some closer manufacturing
center. Just the round trip would take over two months. Closer manufacturing
centers and ship yards do exist even if their combined manufacturing
capacity just about equals Bolt hole. In the short term what they need is
some sort of FTL platefrom even if it's no better than the first one's
Manticore made.

This raises the question of how likely is Mr. D to order a strike against
Bolt Hole if they know where it's at? In the short term I'd have to say
almost none. Bolt Hole is about a month from Haven and Haven is a heck of a
long journey from League space with the Mesan Bolt Hole being rather remote
from that. Mr. D is not likely to want to have his prized fleet vanish into
the void for four or five months, which is the least I think the round trip
would take even using their new drives, when local events might require
their presence much sooner. He would need to feel it was safe and effective
to send part of his fleet to take out Bolt Hole and it is going to be a long
time at best before they have that many ships.

DW had Manitcore less than obessed with finding Bolt Hole for the same
reason. They didn't want 8th fleet to vanish for long enough to take it out
once they realized how remote it was.

While Bolt Hole is being kept safe by distance I'd still bet that you could
just about walk on the sensor plateforms they have around the place and you
might show up and find out you are looking at a major battle fleet in the
process of working up. Surprise!

Post by Don Sample
--
Quando omni flunkus moritati
Visit the Buffy Body Count at <http://homepage.mac.com/dsample/>

[deowll]

I'm top posting to note that Erowin or however you spell it is not Endicott.

Post by deowll
The first thing I guess I need to say is that Manticore is surrounded.
This makes it unlikely that it could locate a truly isolated location to
stick such a place. In a way I guess Grendlesbane was their nearest
approach to that.
That leaves me with what other locations might have ship yards?
Talbot has yards but they aren't anywhere near building cutting edge
hardware though I still think they could do some useful fabrication such
as hull parts for such. Other than maybe a military repair ship they most
likely don't have anything all that cutting edge but Spindle would have
been a location that the Manticorian merchant houses would have wanted to
put a repair facility that could work on their ships. I'd say the odds are
excellent that something is there or was in the process of being built
that can work on Commercial shipping. There is a second issue. All the
ship building facilities in Manticore keep getting grabbed for military
production. In order to get manufacturing and repair work done Spindle is
the best option I can come up with as a location for the Merchant houses
to upgrade in order to take care of the problem unless they were making
use of yards in Beowulf. I suppose there may be something in the system
with the weird sentients but I'm not sure they would be allowed to exploit
the resources in that system.
Trevor's star had a military repair facility. I'm not sure how much high
tech manufacturing there was but DW did miss something here because there
definitely should have been some. They were nowhere near as outdated as
Talbot and they've had several years to play catch up. They weren't
attacked. That means a bit more of the Star Kingdom's manufacturing base
should still be around than indicated.
In Silesia there should be several yards that are operating at more or
less the same standard as the League. They have their own local
manufacturing. They absolutely should be able to provide a lot of what is
need to get Manticore's space stations/manufacturing centers back on line.
However back in HH's pirate chasing days she freed a system just outside
Silesia and they made some sort of deal with the Star Kingdom for a base.
I don't recall hearing anything else about it since but it would have been
used as a staging base for the Star Kingdom in Silesia. It stands to
reason this place would/should have had been provided with some sort of
fortress, supply and repair center because it was the only option and they
were a long way from home. At the time I thought it offered about as much
potential as Grayson. I'm not sure if anyone is going to remember it
exists or not. This system is one of the few options for the Manticorian
merchant houses to have done some major expansion outside of Manticore. I
would have expected it to get developed to some degree. It is a logical
location for a repair center.
I'm not sure if Manticore could purchase high tech manufacturing equipment
from their former Allies in Endicott or not however the people in Endicott
do seem to have a great deal of respect for money. In fact it would not
shock me if they turn out to be supplying military hardware including two
stage missiles to all sorts of people besides Maya. Interestingly Mesa
doesn't seem to have penetrated them as much as I would have expected
because they don't seem to have stolen all their tech. It may be that Mesa
is badly underestimating both how much military hardware and the quality
of said hardware some of these people have. Um, I think Mr. D thinks the
ships that took out his expedition to Torch were part of the Endicott
fleet?
I'm not sure what they could buy from Beowulf or other League members
either. It would not shock me if a ship load of something ended up in the
Manticore system from sources unknown by a roundabout route. Two ships
meet up by the big asteroid in an uninhabited system and swap cargos or
some such.
The problem is going to be making the equipment to make the really cutting
edge equipment DW is going to insist on.
DW had a Manticore character say that various repair ships and such were
scattered around and those could be brought back home however even the
equipment at Trevor's star was not designed for the heavy use they were
now going to be subjecting it to.