CoC: Section 2- Chapter 9 - Chapter 17

[Suzanne]

Chains of Command - Section 2

Please keep all discussion and speculation to the events of Chapter 9 "THE FEW THAT REMAIN" through chapter 17 "LEONIDAS".

No spoiler tags required. Though it would be highly appreciated if you Uncheck Add to my Update Feed to avoid accidentally spoiling things for your Goodreads friends.

Please do not discuss events from later sections/books.

[Suzanne]

And now we get the gang back together again. I'm so glad Sgt. Fallon is included, and it makes total sense. I also really trust her BS radar, so I'm worried about this mission.

[Lindsay]

I'm with Fallon. The mission doesn't make sense.

Actually I'm a little frustrated by Andrew and Halley here: they're both smarter than this.

A scouting mission to 150 LYs away from the solar system, to be followed by an Earth strike force?

They don't have time to do a scouting mission + an assault mission + prepare the attack on Mars. Or repair/resupply any vessels they might lose or regain in the process.

They don't have the resources to risk on an assault mission. Too little gain for too much risk.

An assault mission would almost certainly destroy most of the resources that they would hope to gain by doing this, and revenge is a stupid motive when the plan is Mars.

I just don't buy it. I also don't get why there's a multiple capability force being deployed. If it was for scouting purposes, then just send SEALs. If it was for some half-arsed assault, then what are the SEALs for?

I actually think (putting this in spoilers just in case it's a good guess) (view spoiler)[that this is the entirety of the mission against the breakaways and the SEALs are going to do some sort of black ops/skullduggery/sabotage/steal-the-fleet sort of thing while the various other troops act as some sort of unintentional distraction. (hide spoiler)]

[Suzanne]

I agree that it doesn't make sense. Given how far away everything is, I don't see how it can help the Mars re-invasion at all.

[Rob, Mayor of Ghost Town]

So on one hand I'm glad he wrote Fallon into the book, but if I didn't love her, I'd have a lot of trouble suspending my disbelief. Hasn't she been AWOL for the last year?

[Suzanne]

Hmmm....I guess I had the impression that the regular military was working with the Lazarus brigade - at least loosely. Maybe because of the talk of the home defense force sharing weapons with Lazarus. However, it's not like she got permission to switch - at least not that we know of. So good point.

[Rob, Mayor of Ghost Town]

Yeah. They seem to have a loose truce. However that doesn't let Fallon out of being AWOL. Then again, maybe he's got the pull since she wasn't really wanted anymore.