Predictions?

[dellstart]

Anyone , want to predict , what's going befall our heroes?
War's coming and it aint going to be pretty!

[boballab]

Well if Fel does continue this story Arc I see a war of Subversion first. We know the Devices implanted in the Insectoid race are mind control devices. We know some Faey were captured by the consortium including non generation nobles. That was how they found out about the program. I have a feeling that they have been kidnapping Faey for a long time to make breeding stock and also putting devices in peoples heads. Jason even with Cybi in Communion didn't know about those devices in the Insectoid races head when trying to use telepathy against them. The question is can the Kimdori sense a device while sharing? If they can't Jason could already be in deep shit. What if the Consortium didn't capture a few Karrines on Exile but all of them? What if Exile is a Consortium forward base for a new Generations program? What if Meya and Myri were captured at exile and now have little devices in their heads that only a medical scan can find? Having a base on Exile would explain how they new about Jason and the Karrines revival and now once trying to take Cybi by force might be looking at subversion to get what they want. Also don't you find it a wee bit of coincidence that the Human Telepath sent on that mission just happened to be a Generation and it was the Urumi that sent her? All that time in Urumi control and they never looked at her DNA and maybe passed that on to the Consortium?

[dellstart]

Well if Fel does continue this story Arc I see a war of Subversion first. We know the Devices implanted in the Insectoid race are mind control devices. We know some Faey were captured by the consortium including non generation nobles. That was how they found out about the program. I have a feeling that they have been kidnapping Faey for a long time to make breeding stock and also putting devices in peoples heads. Jason even with Cybi in Communion didn't know about those devices in the Insectoid races head when trying to use telepathy against them. The question is can the Kimdori sense a device while sharing? If they can't Jason could already be in deep shit. What if the Consortium didn't capture a few Karrines on Exile but all of them? What if Exile is a Consortium forward base for a new Generations program? What if Meya and Myri were captured at exile and now have little devices in their heads that only a medical scan can find? Having a base on Exile would explain how they new about Jason and the Karrines revival and now once trying to take Cybi by force might be looking at subversion to get what they want. Also don't you find it a wee bit of coincidence that the Human Telepath sent on that mission just happened to be a Generation and it was the Urumi that sent her? All that time in Urumi control and they never looked at her DNA and maybe passed that on to the Consortium?

Firstly,I bloody well hope, that Fel does continue this story , cause theres so much more yet to be told.

Keeping in with the underhanded methods of the consortium ,a hidden fifth column would severe their purposes perfectly.As you have correctly pointed out,they might have already infiltrated the Faey and this would no doubt,cause much anxiety and paranoia for all involved.
Jason is going to be severely tested , in a way that he has never been before.The enemy is hidden and it might just be someone he holds very close to his heart.I see a lot of heart ache in his future.

As usual, we are going to be treated to latest updates , in advanced Karrine technology.Maybe Myelana will finally work out her engine issues. plus , they are going to have to come up with something that tips the scale in their direction.Any ideas?

I am also waiting, for the next installment of Rann and his future intended.Now , that bodes for entertaining reading.I also have a funny feeling,that somethings going to happens to her sister and shes going to end up the heir.Now thats potential for conflict.

[dellstart]

anybody out there, wanna give their two cents??/

[expedient]

There's gonna be war (obvious first). I think it's a case of numbers, if as I suspect the Consortium has overwhelming numerical advantage, the Karrine advances in technology will not be enough in themselves. That's why I was speculating before about teleportation abilities. With hyperspace disrupted this would at least allow an irregular disruptive war to take place. Like the war against House Trillane's trading capability. So delay and frustrate.

Someone also has to go to Andromeda to find out as much as possible while the stalemate is in place.

Having a base on Exile would explain how they new about Jason and the Karrines revival and now once trying to take Cybi by force might be looking at subversion to get what they want. Also don't you find it a wee bit of coincidence that the Human Telepath sent on that mission just happened to be a Generation and it was the Urumi that sent her? All that time in Urumi control and they never looked at her DNA and maybe passed that on to the Consortium?

When the university was announced a number of civilizations the Faey had no contact with expressed interest in the project. Even those who no one had heard of before. So the Consortium may have found out by more conventional means.

The Urumi were working with Trillane and I'm not sure they knew what they had. I doubt they know about Generations, even the other Karrines don't really know.

As for Exile, who knows (apart from Fel). Some of them at least sound like they could be xenophobic and elitist. If they've been compromised the security on Karis seemed extensive, as you'd expect with Kimdori help. Meya and Myri, could cause problems if they are controlled.

I am also waiting, for the next installment of Rann and his future intended.Now , that bodes for entertaining reading.I also have a funny feeling,that somethings going to happens to her sister and shes going to end up the heir.Now thats potential for conflict.

She has two older sisters. House Karrine is already leading the Faey to new future, they just don't see it yet...

Editied to correct Merrane to Trillane (it's been a long week).

[Mysterious]

House Karrine is most definately taking the Faey to a new Future. The Faey society has essentially stagnated in all areas of life: social, cultural, political and economic. With the Karrine technological advancement with their strong basis in the hard sciences and with the human entrepreneurial spirit we'll most likely see massive upheavals in Faey society in the time since Insurrection.

That's what I see happenning. We haven't really discussed how humanity will affect the faey and the upcoming war. Everything that humanity has now encountered is like a new shiny toy so we can expect some weird and wacky stuff coming out of Terra. But the real advantage that I see humanity bringing to the war is our ability to make a buck out of any business transaction. The British Colonial Empire was based largely upon the control of world trade so it could fund their large navy and their continued dominance. At that time the British Navy was larger than any next two largest navies combined.

If we see a resurgence of Intergalactic trade with human/faey, with the help of the Kimdori, on top then it will be easy to fund a large military expansion to fend off any attack. Jason has the advantage of being an aware defender so building huge defences and with the distance of the enemy home worlds will make any invasion largely difficult to proceed. The only problems that I encounter is the ability of Jason to launch an counter-invasion. It will take time, manpower and a lot of resources to pull it off notwithstanding the casualties that he will be taking in the defense of the Faey Empire.



Mysterious

[boballab]

The problem with the whole "the Consortium heard about the reopening of the academy and returned angle" is they were supposedly all the way back in the andromeda galaxy. Remember the only information that the Kimdori and Cybi were able to find out about the Consortium was from the Urumi computer systems. Yes the Consortium sold Tech to the Urumi but I doubt they were honest with them. Another problem is the timing. Yes the Faey now use virtually instaneous means of communication but this is in the relatively short distances of inside the milky way galaxy. However for a broadcasted signal to reach the andromeda galaxy it would take years still. Remember the Kimdori also use a means of Hyperspace travel similar to the Karrines and consortium and it still takes them 3 hours to get to Karis and the consortium are not able to make a Hyperspace jump from Andromeda to the Milky way in one go, they have to jump in stages. One piece of info we have is that the Consortium tried to colonize the Milky way at the time the Feay were in a Civil war. What we don't know is why their colony failed. What if durning the civil war their colonization fleet stumbled across a Faey Battle fleet and got virtualy destroyed. At that time the Faey on both sides were afraid the Karrines would join the other side so any strange ships that wandered into Faey territory might have been thought to be Karrine and attacked. Besides the Karrine tech this gives them even more motive to come back. We know they want to make their own version of the Generations program, which is a two part process. The Biogenic computers and Bio engineered Beings. So they have probably been working on the program since that time. So they needed to selectively breed Faey to make the right Being to interface with a computer, however the Faey they have are the descendents of the house that the Gene therapy didn't work on. This means there is something in their DNA which wouldn't allow them to become Genrations so they would need more Faey and there is only one place to get those. The only thing they are missing is the key part: Kimdori DNA. Remember back when the program was running every Karrine nobel, Generation and non Generation, knew about the program. The only thing the Generations knew that the majority of the house didn't know was about the Kimdori DNA. The Trillane angle is very simple. Maeri Trillane is power hungry and the consortium used that. What do you think would have happened to the Faey in House Trillane if they broke away. Simple the Consortium takes them over and Wah-La a ready made supply of Faey for breeding purposes.
The Consortium have had a 1000 years to make a move back into the Milky Way Galaxy and establish a base in a uncharted area. This makes more sense with the way the story runs. They have a forward base that they are using to try to make a Generations program run. This gives them ready access to kidnap more Faey for Breeding/DNA purposes. Gets them a base to build their military might up at to make a move in the Milky way. Now along comes the Announcement that the Karrine have returned, which they would pick up quickly on, but the important factior is there is the scenes of Karrine ships (including Karrine Warships) broadcasted. They know the only place those ships could come from is Karis and it would take a CBIM to run everything due to the knoweledge they got from the Non generation Karrine nobels and from the Dropships they captured. This causes them to panic in away and forces them to make a move before they are ready yet. Also remember the Consortium told the Urumi about the Program. It is also common knowledge now that all the Human telepaths have Faey ancestors and that Faey and Humans can cross breed. Why in the hell would they not take DNA samples of every human telepath held by the Urumi since they know Jason has to be a Generation to be Grand Duke? You would think the Consortium would scoop them up to use in their Generations program, especailly a powerful Telepath/Telekinetic like Rahne.

[expedient]

I wasn’t suggesting that the Consortium heard about the academy and returned. I’m saying they might have already had a presence/scout in the Milky Way and heard about the academy. They’ve had years to hear and get an advance force into place.

Pretty much everything you’ve outlined makes sense and fits how I see it too. The key thing is that they were rushed into action by Karrine military expansion. They made a hasty call to supply the Urumi with technology, who are not part of the Consortium and will have to be later conquered. They needed numbers. The Urumi-Trillane alliance and the Urumi-Consortium deal seem completely separate to each other.

As I see it the Trillane deal was stagnating with the new threat of a revived Karinne house, putting them at a military disadvantage. So the Urumi accepted Consortium help instead.

Did the Consortium tell the Urumi about the Generations? I don’t think that is established. Likewise the Urumi may not have told the Consortium all about their plans and assets. They were looking to double-cross Trillane, so I don’t deem them trustworthy. The Consortium may have been looking to control Dahnai with their devices and ordered the death of Kellin, the Urumi may have improvised and embellished especially if they didn’t know the full reason for the killing. I doubt there's much trust between them.

[boballab]

“Good. Jason, my children have cracked the Urumi security. We now have a complete view of the Consortium. Handmaiden Miaari’s theories were correct in assuming they were from a great distance. They are from Andromeda.”

They spoke of one secret in particular, Jason,” she said intensely, then she reached up and put her hand on her neck. Through Kimdori sharing, she imparted to him exactly what they were after.
The Generations Program.
]Jason felt his heart sink. The Consortium had learned of the Program through the Karinnes they captured, and now the Urumi knew at least something about it. Zaa imparted to him that the Consortium told the Urumi that the Karinnes had genetically engineered their telepathic power, and had built computers that were telepathically aware, and the Consortium wanted those secrets

These quotes come from the visit Zaa made to see Aura and pass what the Kimdori got from the Urumi computer network right at the end to Insurrection. As shown the Consortium told the Urumi about the Generations program. The Urumi know now that the Karrines are genetically engineered so why let go a human Telepath, especailly one that shows a known Karrine Noble trait in Telekinesis. They want to know what is different genetically about the Karrines that allow them to interface with a computer. Then turn around and let go a Telepath with a known Karrine ancestor, since all human telepaths have either commner or noble ancestors of House Karrine, where is th logic in that. A quick DNA scan would have shown that her DNA was weird compared to human and Faey norm. How hard would it be for them to get a DNA sample from Mika, since she is staying at the Academy? Once they had that the Consortium could compare the DNA record of Non-Generation Karrines they would have on file to Temika's and Ranhe's. That little exercise would have shown that Rahne had something a little extra in her DNA just like with Jason when Rann did it. It just seems like th obvious way to go.

[expedient]

Well that puts a different light on it. It does raise further questions like how strongly do the Consortium control the Urumi? I can only guess they told them about the Generations in order to capture some. Any DNA samples that they've collected must be beyond their current understanding and technology to exploit. They had examples of the interfaces but not the gestalts, so that may be a factor limiting their understanding. When the doctors examined Jason's DNA they never guessed at a third alien DNA (faey, human and kimdori), so perhaps an examination of Rahne wouldn't be enough for them understand what they are seeing. So having got a sample the next step would be to recover examples and records from Cybi. The damage done to the Karrines from a human telepath attacking Kelling and Dahnai may have outweighed any other benefits. They might have even cloned or bred her already.

“This is a detailed account of everything we have learned so far from the wreckage,” she said, “and also the preliminary intelligence gathered from the Urumi captain we have in custody.”

“What did you learn from him?”

“Not much more than we have pieced together, but we did pick up one interesting bit of information,” she answered. “It seems that he overheard a confrontation between the Queen and the Consortium representative. He related that the Consortium wanted the entire Urumi fleet to attack Karis, but the Collective was very resistant to that idea, because it is a six day jump to Karis from Collective space, where it is only a three day jump to Draconis. They were afraid that the Imperium would retaliate before they could get their fleet back to defend their border systems. In that respect, they were correct.”

“Damn right they were correct,” Dahnai said aggressively.

“When he was leaving, the Consortium was offering their own ships to defend Urumi territory, which the Queen seemed to not prefer.”

“Who could blame her,” Tim noted. “I wouldn’t like a mysterious ally to park a fleet of ships in my territory when my entire fleet wasn’t there to oppose them if they attacked.”

“True,” Dahnai nodded.

Therefore the Consortium don't seem to have direct control over the Urumi. So, how long have they been in collusion with the Urumi? I'm inclined to think it is a very recent development in order to give them a force close to Faey territories. Else why the sudden outfitting of the ships with new weapons etc.? Why no devices in the Urumi commanders? Why abandon them so suddenly? This is why I feel the Urumi-Trillane alliance was not influenced by the Consortium.

The Consortium have spent a considerable amount of time developing the hyperspace technologies and weapons from the Exile captives examples and knowledge. They may have known much in some areas but the biogenics were a protected secret even against other Karrines, so they may be centuries behind in this research. Another thing to consider is if someone is being compelled to comply the nature of the questions and/or the limitations of the questioner might affect the process and reduce their effectiveness. One piece of evidence that might support this is that they didn't know about the Kimdori. The Exile Karrines would know of the shapeshifting abilities and close links to Karis, so maybe the question just wasn't asked. If they were thought to have been the only survivors why ask about such things?

[boballab]

I agree the Consortium/Urumi alliance is a new thing. I think the Consortium was taking their time and using covert means up until the time of Jason's ascension to the House Karrine seat. I think that spooked them and casued them to look for allies. If they have been covertly watching the Imperium for any length of time they would know the problems between Dahanni and Trillane. They could easily spy on the Faey Imperium the same way they spied on Karis. They would want to exploit that crack in the Imperium so The question is: Is 5 years really long enough for Trillane to recover from losing a multi billion credit battle fleet plus the fines Dahanni imposed on them and be strong enough to declare Independence and make it stick? We know that Maeri Trillane has very little regard for others but she is not stupid. She, just like Dahanni, knows that the Urumi are not militarily capable without the Consortium upgrades to make Independce stick so why do it? I think the Urumi/Trillane alliance was pushed by the Consortium and they fueled money and supplies through the Urumi to them.

Now the difference between the Consortium comparing DNA and Rann, Songa and Yohne's comparison on Jason's DNA is that the Consortium knows about the Program. They already know there was genetic engineering done to the Karrines, the others didn't. The Consortium would know there would have to be genetic differences bewtween a non altered Karrine Nobles and Generations and the easiest way to find the differences is to do a comparsion between them. Since humans got thrown into the picture they would also need Human telepath DNA to compare as well.

As to the Kimdori, yes the Consortium would know they are shapeshifters, but they don't know about Kimdori Sharing. No one outside of the Kimdori, the CBIM's and the Generations know that secret, which is also the key to the Generations Program. I have a feeling that this time Jason won't be able to rely as much on the advice of the Denmother. The Kimdori have vast experience and knoweldge with/about the Faey. This allows them to predict how they will act and behave. With the Consortium, they don't have that, they have no knoweledge of what their normal behavior is so that will make the denmothers' advice less effective.

Bottom line I think the Consortium were taking their time and moving slowly until Jason's emergence. Through their hyperspace spy networks they would find out that Jason was searching for Karrines and afraid he would stumble onto them. I think they were hoping to complete their own Generations program before taking over the Milky way, with this they paniced and jumped the gun. The other thing we don't know about the Consortium is their status in the Andromeda Galaxy that they would want to colonize the Milky Way. One of two things has to be true: One they control the Andromeda Galaxy or they are being pushed out of that Galaxy by another race or races.

[expedient]

Yeah we've speculated a little on the situation in Andromeda before. That's why whilst delaying the Consortium advance they need to also get all that stealth technology working, a way to mask hyperspace signatures and maybe Myleena's more efficient subluminal drive put it all into a new scout ship and send it out.

Hopefully they can find either new allies or recover some useful technology out there to help in the Milky Way.

Meanwhile the civilizations with representatives at the academy may feel the need to ally themselves with the Karinnes, with provisos against the rest of the Faey, with such a large unknown threat destabilizing their region of space.

One other thing, large ships such as the command ship seem to be at a disadvantage against these new penetrating weapons so perhaps medium sized more agile ships might be a more useful choice. If the graviton torsion shockwave mines can be worked into a defense against the torsion guns then the Karinnes would have a powerful advantage, getting more damaging shots to replies in battle.

[dellstart]

Yeah we've speculated a little on the situation in Andromeda before. That's why whilst delaying the Consortium advance they need to also get all that stealth technology working, a way to mask hyperspace signatures and maybe Myleena's more efficient subluminal drive put it all into a new scout ship and send it out.

Hopefully they can find either new allies or recover some useful technology out there to help in the Milky Way.

Meanwhile the civilizations with representatives at the academy may feel the need to ally themselves with the Karinnes, with provisos against the rest of the Faey, with such a large unknown threat destabilizing their region of space.

One other thing, large ships such as the command ship seem to be at a disadvantage against these new penetrating weapons so perhaps medium sized more agile ships might be a more useful choice. If the graviton torsion shockwave mines can be worked into a defense against the torsion guns then the Karinnes would have a powerful advantage, getting more damaging shots to replies in battle.

good point.

[boballab]

The thing about the command ship size, is a double edge sword. As shown in Subjugation it took 4 hits from the cutting beams to knock it out and none of them went completely through the ship. Where as the smaller ships one hit and they were done because they were sliced in half, but being smaller they are more manuverable and are harder to hit. So it was kind of a six in one, half dozen in the other scenerio.

What will be interesting to see is what Jason does with all his fighters. Faey combat practice is to use small, fast fighters to get close to an enemy ship and let the pilot use telepathy on the crew. Since so far the only crews in the Consortium fleet we have seen is the Insectoids and they are basically immune to telepathy, the fighters are almost totally ineffective against them. I wonder if they can be modified to launch something like those rings Jason used in Subjugation against Orbital One. Those rings only destroy plasma conduit and if they can be adapted they could knock out enemy ships with pinpoint strikes, leaving the ships structurally sound to be captured and turned into Karrine warships.

[expedient]

I'm not sure that the ring would work because their ships broadcast plasma to different sections to provide power.

Surprisingly, the Consortium used plasma as a power source, just like the Imperium and many other races, but they had learned how to broadcast that plasma power to remote units, without a PPG. Now that was new, something either of them had ever seen before, and that was how the implants in the insectoid’s brains were powered.

Taking your idea though, maybe they could penetrate the ship using a double phased version of the MPAC and overload any power nodes that way.

Also the Insectoids may not be susceptible to telepathic attacks but they were to telekinetic ones.

“Well, first, these things are adapted to a low-G environment,” she told him. “Their physiology is almost delicate in ways that they wouldn’t be if they matured in a normal gravity well. I don’t think they could even survive more than a few hours in the Karis gravity well. They’re like the Menoda that way.”

The autopsy suggest that they may not like extreme acceleration much either, if that could be forced somehow. The bouncing B-Bs from Hell (aka Satan’s Marbles) might be quiet effective once they got fast enough to get through the exoskeleton. A pheromone attack might work too...