One of the problems with this type of smear campaign is that Manticore has extensive experience from dealing with Haven. There will be initial success, but the mock up will be transparent to the experienced eye. It immediately begs the questions of who and why?

J

I was thinking "toast", but I dont speak French. French toast, with egg on the face.____DW has always been into name games. Isnt his principal hero a paragon of honor? It gets more subtle, but occasionally not.____J

Intersting snippet. Are they just arrogant, or is there something more going on?

J

Cannae would be intersting in a space battle. The essence of Hannibal's strategy was to get the enemy tripping over each other, while being peppered from all directions. How you manage something similar at light seconds of spacing would be a challenge.

J

Lapping of water indeed. Of course they are having trouble shipping. Its called competition. She is pointing to the sunset, blaming the Manties, and they are going to swallow it.

On the other hand, I'm not sure that I do. If OFS is really the ogre DW paints it to be, these people would have fallen in line. There is even a comment in the text to that effect. Even if they are extremists, acting for their own interests at the expense of everyone elses, this is taking selfishness to extremes, especially when she lays it out as baldly as this.

J

They pretty much spelled that out in "Shadow of Saganami".

J

The drive is interesting in its our right, but the staged disagreement hsa more potential. Obviously they know he will not be allowed into the President's presense, but is there more? Is he being posted outside to do something? Is this the first time in a coming pattern, so that he will be unremarked later? Clearly they anticipate violence, or at least potential for violence.

J

Years ago I took a writing seminar from James Gunn. He said that dialog is the slowest way to move a plot. Here we see evidence.

J

Yawn. The Manties are not stupid. Big revelation. We are getting a pattern of crazing in the glass. The whole thing will shatter at once.

J

The Ballroom as unpaid assassin was just a bit too obvious for this treatment.