The Absolute Zero (Ngoverse "The Administrator" setting)

[Cannonshop]

Fusion powered combat units have the ability to crack water for hydrogen by default, at a rate of ten tons per maintenance cycle (a week I think?). The exploit is that this means ALL fusion powered units, as long as they are not themselves being repaired or modified. So the Leviathan can generate those ten tons by itself, plus another ten tons for every fighter, small craft, dropship, or other fusion powered unit available to it (presumably they have to be in a bay, not packed up as cargo).

If the ship has been stripped of its escorts through prolonged combat though, and if it has to keep moving to avoid being caught, use is going to quickly exceed replacement.

It's also possible that the Lyrans are able to track the ship, assuming Stone bugged the Ghost Bear fleet like he did the Lyrans, and the Lyrans have managed to crack the bug and use it to their advantage. If the Lyrans have a habit of "just showing up" when the Alshain is stopping to break some ice off a comet, then the Alshain would have to run on its fuel reserves to another location and hope they got enough ice to crack to run again.

Finding a comet or ice asteroid and you still don't have the abiity to, say, drop a hose out of your fighter into a lake or pond. (which requires all sorts of filtration in and of itself, hence the existence of fuel tankage at spaceports instead of just sticking the landing pads on a lake or river.)  for one thing the ice is Dirty and for another, it's solid, and in vacuum, the line between solid/liquid/gas is very narrow with it.  Cracking water itself? no problem, you just need a pure source.

you know, like a tanker full of purified H2O, because mining equipment isn't something your warship is likely to be carrying as anything but cargo, and only then as dedicated mission hardware.

with a ship the size of the Leviathan, assuming you give it all the gear (and trained personnel used to asteroid mining and with the right equipment to assay a comet)  you can do it...in four to six months, assuming you actually brought people who know how, and assuming you didn't hit a pocket of something volatile in the process.

because volatiles hitting that could be BAD and do bad things to your hydrogen straining assembly.

for instance, blowing out the membranes and maybe rupturing the plumbing to your tanks.

THAT is the heavy and expensive gear-the machinery that keeps all the OTHER cometary debris and especially lightweight, energetic volatiles that ALSO mix up in cometary snow, out of your fuel system while you're cracking for pure H2 out of the snow.

[Korzon77]

And that's a mass and maintenance penalty you have to pay--especially if you're talking big enough to refuel quickly. The thing is, the type of war being waged right now hasn't been waged since the 1st Successoin War, at least in space. So the Bears saw no reason to waste space, volume and crew on something that 99 percent of the time would be useless deadweight.

Also note that in this case?  The Lyrans are letting the ship live, because they don't want to kill it. If it did have fueling equipment and was getting ready to go after something vital, then the answer is--wait until it's parked next to the asteroid and then nuke it.

[Cannonshop]

LCS Tatyana Steiner...

"Nah-hay Y'all.  Anyone en thar 'lahve?"  the rest of her battlegroup were spread out in the system in a pattern that centered on the GBS Alshain.

"This is Ghost Bear Warship Alshain, have you come to finish the job?"

"En a mattah o'spekken. Ah...I'm Rear Admiral Elizabeth Anh MacAulliffe, Lyran Commonwealth Navy, Looks like you're in a spot of trouble there-did you guys really try to crack that comet without the right training?"

"What? what about it?"

"I just wanted to let you know, the Cynthia Steiner battlegroup intercepted your supply convoy-they aren't coming...geezus, who taught your guys to bag a rock? Kindergartdners?  Look, ah...Star Admiral? I know it's rude to mess with an opponent when they're doing something stupidly self-destructive, but one intact ship is better than thirty six hours of rescue operations."

"What are you proposing?"

"ninety six hour cease-fire, and I lend you some help destrangin' your refueling rig and repairing it so you don't starve to death over the next month while the politicians discuss things." she said succinctly,  "The way you have that set up, the first pocket of volatiles you hit is going to blow your tankage right the frell apart and it'll be a finagle damn miracle if it doesn't kill a large chunk of your engineering crew, spot me dirtyfoot? You set it up wrong."  She leaned back,"That's door Alpha, by the way. Door bravo is we shoot holes in that messed up rig and kill a few of your crewmen, but you at least have a drifting hull with pressure until the big-bosses decide we're done fighting, then I gots to tow you to a yard we haven't blown the unholy smeg out of."

"We retain our claws, Plaguey." the Ghost Bear officer snarled

"Yeah, I can see your fighter wing's running on fumes from here.  I'm offering to fix your ship so you don't die out here.  Look, see that sun? that's a white dwarf, low end, carbon-oxy white dwarf.  nobody lives here, I can see the tatters of your jump-sail, you have to fusion hot-charge if you want to leave..and if I let you make the mistake you're making, you ain' gonna without someone comes by to give you a ride.  Ah ain' askin' yoah surrendah, Ah'm askin' y'all to let us help you go home."

"Why are you offering this help?"

"because few things: sooner or later wars end." she said, "Second, it's dark and cold and silent out  here, people die when they asn't intent on killin' each othah' wit' cap'tal weapons, Thuhd, y'alls is warriors what happens t'be in space, Mah folks is spacers what heppens t'fight fo' a livin', but thet's a sometahmes thang fo' us, an' seein' a grand old vessel gone wrecked on account of a badly rigged hydrogen-crakkin setup constitutes a sight lahk seein' a child playin' in an airlock. Tragedy come right quick a'hind et..." she sighed, "An' fahn'ly, 'sometimes you get more for bringing ammunition home'."

"That is bad strategy."  the Ghost Bear officer commented.

"Ayeh, it is." she agreed, "I have four cruisers and sixteen destroyers backing me up, plus commo with 24 cutters and a link to two other battle groups within one jump of this system.  Your entire fleet as of this morning are four thousand POW's on Lyons and one ship with no fuel in an uninhabited system forty seven lights from the Lyran border.  I think I might have the strategic advantage here, but rendering you aid does give you a brief tactical window to maybe take one of my ships before I can stop you.  Would you like hard numbers on your chances of surviving that?"

"Why? why are you offering this?"

"If you have to ask why, you don't understand and I can't explain it.  will you take the ceasefire or not?"

"I can not." he said.

"I guess we're doing this the hard way." she turned, "All units, weapons free, terminate the Alshain.  Physics packets are explicitly NON authorized. conventionals only, cutters stand by for search and rescue and all SAR personnel to your stations."

"mum, you left the channel open..."

"Ayep. Ah did."

[Cannonshop]

Katrina Mercy Military Hospital, Lyons...

Star Commander Ivar Tseng opened his eyes, and immediately recognized by the lower technology that he was in a spheroid hospital.

"Guten Tag Herr Star Commander! you're awake!"  the girl was a medtech, and between the blue working uniform of the LCAF's medical staff, and her junior rank markers, she had to be a nurse.

"Where am I?" he mumbled after she pulled the throat-tubes out.

"Katrina Mercy Military Hospital, critical care unit three." she said, "We had quite a struggle saving you, herr Star Commander, you were savaged by  vacuum exposure as well as burns.  You will take quite a long time recuperating."

"How..how long?"

"It has been ninety four days since you were recovered by search and rescue teams." she explained, "They had a difficult time finding you in the wreckage of your ship."

"We lost."

"decisively.  I am Helge, I am your assigned therapist."

"We were winning." he said, "How did we lose?"

"You were out-fought." she said, "your confusion will pass.  You are among the last of your comrades to wake up, for a while, Doctor Scheer was concerned you would not wake up, due to the extent of your injuries."

his hand drifted under the sheet.  it's still there!

"Yah, we did not have to repair that part." she said, "Most of your burns were on the upper half of your body.  the skin grafts have taken rather well.  Tomorrow, we will begin the process of re-teaching your body how to move, since you required extensive muscle grafts and bone replacement for the third degree burns you suffered.  today, we will begin with language and pattern recognition to ascertain if you suffered any serious brain damage, either from the injuries, or the extensive medical treatments we had to use saving your life."

[Daryk]

If that Star Admiral survived, they're going to have some explaining to do...

[Cannonshop]

Triad, Tharkad, May 20, 3159...

Tukayyid day.  of course it would be Tukayyid day.

"you can not delay longer, Trill." Alaric Ward reminded her.

"I know."  While she didn't have the peace she wanted, the Ghost Bear fleet no longer existed, they were confined to their worlds.  It was time to finish the job.

Trillian sighed, and signed the executive order authorizing combat operations in the Republic of the Sphere.

she turned to Alaric, "wait a little longer, Alaric,and you'll have an easy march on Terra if that's really what you want."

the order scanned onto the Black box fax machine.

"Of course it is what I want." he said, and the screen blanked off.

"no, you want more."  She stepped out of the communication room in the palace, and onto the deck overlooking the waterfront.  "my god, what have I done?"

in the darkness, beyond her sight, War Plan Maroon kicked off-the destruction of the Republic's fleet and fleet capacity.

The reconaissance was as good as she could get, they knew where most of Stone's secret shipyards and bases were, they knew what kind of atrocities piloted those secret warships, she knew things she really didn't want to know.  Things kept from the public to prevent a tide of bloodlust from devouring everything she had managed to build up to now.

Trillian glanced at a clock.

05:45

it was fifteen minutes to six AM, Terran Standard time.  in fifteen minutes, timed leaks would be hitting the media.  the things Sharon cautioned against releasing, the manei-domini ships, the full reports on the Quarantine Zone attack in 3142, including the redacted sections they'd tried to keep from her own eyes, the automated shipyards in idle systems, the Alexander Davion's true home-port.

Everything.  Part numbers, the presence of Smoke Jaguar DNA, the identity of the Fidelis, which had been ferreted out by means she shuddered to contemplate.

The attacks on Boojum, and Buena, Duran, all of it.

casus belli.  The only thing left unsaid, was who was ultimately responsible for what had happened in the past. the only certainty was who would be responsible for what happens in the present.

"I am responsible." she muttered. 

[Daryk]

This should be interesting...  8)

[Sharpnel]

Ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee.

[Cannonshop]

Overview...

among the First Circuit, there was a stunned moment of silence, because nothing hinting at what was now playing on hundreds of worlds throughout the Inner Sphere had been detected.  Media from Atreus to Sian, from Sian to recovering, shell shocked New Avalon, and from New Avalon, to Luthien were repeating the same information with only marginal, localized, differences. 

Even Rasalhague's media were playing it, albeit with some consternation among MIMIR officers and the rising anger of both civilian and military authorities alike.

But it wasn't stopping with the Inner Sphere.  Sources as far flung as Alphard, and Canopus IV, were also repeating it.

and in Geneva.

There is a limit to what you can do, conditioning a man to think and act a certain way without tipping off his friends that he's acting on conditioning.  When the Master created Devlin Stone, they'd pushed hard to get the result just right-independent enough to be an open adversary, controlled enough to create the desirable outcome, durable enough to keep it going indefinitely. 

But those master manipulators who flipped Victor STeiner-Davion, and Brother Lear, who managed STone, were gone, and this was an attack aimed squarely at his programming.  For their puppet lord to function, he had to believe he was on the side of right and good, had to forget certain orders and misremember others.

a divided man, a schizoid man, the Apprentice of the Master had to believe in his own legend absolutely and without hesitation.

the ultimate Manei Domini, hand of the master, sat in his command center...and nobody knew what he was going to do, Least of all, the Brotherhood.

[Sharpnel]

In the background can be heard a now ancient Terran song, strangely titled "Bullet with Butterfly Wings"


Whatever form it takes I expect Devlin Stone's death to be glorious.

[Daryk]

I dare say, least of all the man himself!  ^-^

[Cannonshop]

Continued in: "The Adjudicator"

[Giovanni Blasini]

Looking forward to it.

[Daryk]

Looking for it desperately!  8)

[ThePW]

So to be clear, in this AU story line, it's presumed that Stone WAS a Blakist plant all along and his government hid, embraced the MD and worked hand in hand with Comstar & The WoB (or one in the same)?

As for the Alshain: 2 Questions.

1) Was it pride that prevented the Star Admiral from accepting help or even considering the benefits of a Cease Fire?

2)Why is Hegira not invoked or even mentioned? I think that was a critical mistake on the part of the LCN... 

[Sir Chaos]

So to be clear, in this AU story line, it's presumed that Stone WAS a Blakist plant all along and his government hid, embraced the MD and worked hand in hand with Comstar & The WoB (or one in the same)?

As for the Alshain: 2 Questions.

1) Was it pride that prevented the Star Admiral from accepting help or even considering the benefits of a Cease Fire?

2)Why is Hegira not invoked or even mentioned? I think that was a critical mistake on the part of the LCN...

Hegira part of playing the games the Clans play. Offering a ceasefire is part of the conduct of war. The LCN don´t play games, they wage war.

[mikecj]

Nicely concluded

[idea weenie]

I wonder if the Alshain was a trophy delivered to Trillian Steiner

It'd be a good little memento of the Ghost Bear mistake, and a subtle warning to other nations too

And when they get tired of it for political and R&D purposes, then taking it apart for smaller museum displays, and finally the bridge is no longer useful, then the last bits of it can be smelted down for raw materials.

[glitterboy2098]

i wonder how many cutters you can build with the alloys and parts used to build a 2.4 megaton Leviathan III..

[Daryk]

A bit under 50...