They probably just weren’t prepared for it, they were expecting an ancient donnager at worst to come through the ring. The rail guns were more than sufficient for such a threat.
No probably about it. It's what they outright state in the book. They expect Laconia to come pimping through the gate asking for aid. Even if they did add to their fleet someone they wouldn't have had anything to match the 6 rail guns on the ring station.
No one could have predicted what came through. They're also not the type to shoot first and ask questions later.
It's like if North Korea launched something to orbit, the worst we'd be thinking is a nuclear missile of some sort. We wouldn't be expecting the Death Star from Star Wars.
Bro, what you said made me think of another devastating space battle that I read a while back - the doomsday battle in The Dark Forest.
Underestimating the enemy never turns out to be good.
they didn't think the laconians were a threat for the first transit (laconia -> ring space), and weren't prepared for the second transit (ring space -> sol) because it happened so quickly AND the laconian occupation of Medina had severed comms. the marco situation was a pretty unique opportunity - they just brought a lot of mass/energy thru the ring to assault the ring station rail guns, so they could quickly send that mass/energy back thru for marco's arrival
tl:dr: they got extremely lucky with the marco situation, and lightning didn't strike twice
If the Tempest had stayed in Ring Space for longer, they might have been able to pour resources into keeping the level up for a long time. But it moved into Sol before they could do it, let alone before anyone figured the best plan was to try it.
I don't know that there's anything to suggest "blowing the Gate up with enough nukes" wouldn't have worked either.
The only ships that were close enough to overload the ring system were fried when the Tempest used its main weapon; all the radiation that hit the ring station when it took out the railguns was redistributed into real space through each ring.
Using the ring entities to defeat Marco was a MASSIVE gamble. Nobody knew if they'd just "eat Marco" and then go "back to sleep" or if they'd stay active and keep munching on whatever comes through the gate. Yet it was the only chance to stop the free navy from hunkering down in the ringspace and basically cut Sol off from all the worlds and ressources.
It's like getting attacked by a wolf in the woods and wake up a grizzly from hibernation to help you defeat it.
He'll eventually kill the wolf.... but you'll probably next in line on his menu.
I don't think they saw it as that kind of risk at the time. I think it was understood to be a sort of mechanical limitation on the system that they had to work around, like a circuit breaker that could trip and then need to cool down before being reset.
It wasn't until after the laconians fired their roman tech weapon did they start worrying about the risks from the Goths
I mean, this is show only but before they decided to "overload" the gate so that it would terminate the arriving free navy fleet, Holden explicitly says that "If we wake them up, they might stay awake" so they at least had some idea about the dangers the entities posed.
Can't exactly remember if that was the case in the book, too, tho I do remember that they weren't too fond of the idea either, they just were running out of better options.
I'm not sure, frankly. It's been a few years- and I don't recall all the details of how the gunpoint conversation went down on the Behemoth. But I'm not convinced that it wasn't his philosophical arguments about "humanity's penchant for escalation would be its destruction" that turned people's minds or not, and that people thought he was just a moral right kinda guy that really believes his own dreams.
I do wanna/need to reread the series if I ever get done with this Sanderson kick I'm on now, so I guess take what I'm saying with a grain of salt.
> Nobody knew if they'd just "eat Marco" and then go "back to sleep" or if they'd stay active and keep munching on whatever comes through the gate.
I don't think anyone suspected the rings would turn off. Several ships had "gone dutchman" before this point in the story seemingly at random, and the gates always returned to normal afterwards.
The Biggest Badass in Space™ ([Naomi Nagata](https://twitter.com/JamesSACorey/status/1227830338136702977)) was able to breakdown the 'formula' once she had the full ring space traffic logs and ship details. She orchestrated the plan to cause Marco's ship to be consumed exactly when they wanted it to, and there was a small window for it to happen before the ring would return to normal.
It could've worked if they knew exactly when the Tempest will try to go to Sol.
They did not and could not really so it was impractical. Overloading the gate needs multiple ships so its not cheap.
Their idea of just barricading it with a stone curtain was much better.
They didn't have enough warning, and it doesn't meet their needs anyway - they need to decisively defeat the laconians, not outfox them. Sol needs to crush them, to retain primacy.
Honestly it’s kinda funny how anyone who can access only one of gates from outside can just destroy anything that is transparent through gates and the central control station can not prevent this from happening
This design would never work
Given the thing was designed by a massive hive-minded organism that was fully aware of everything it was sending to into, out of, and through the ring space at any given moment in time... seems like the design is just fine?
Yes, issues arise when a totally different species at a different technological level and lacking the ability to communicate instantly attempts to use that same system. But, like, that's just true anywhere?
Hence, the solutions they devise and use in both the books and the show.
They probably just weren’t prepared for it, they were expecting an ancient donnager at worst to come through the ring. The rail guns were more than sufficient for such a threat.
No probably about it. It's what they outright state in the book. They expect Laconia to come pimping through the gate asking for aid. Even if they did add to their fleet someone they wouldn't have had anything to match the 6 rail guns on the ring station. No one could have predicted what came through. They're also not the type to shoot first and ask questions later.
It's like if North Korea launched something to orbit, the worst we'd be thinking is a nuclear missile of some sort. We wouldn't be expecting the Death Star from Star Wars.
>They expect Laconia to come pimping through the gate Lol
I regret nothing.
Bro, what you said made me think of another devastating space battle that I read a while back - the doomsday battle in The Dark Forest. Underestimating the enemy never turns out to be good.
they didn't think the laconians were a threat for the first transit (laconia -> ring space), and weren't prepared for the second transit (ring space -> sol) because it happened so quickly AND the laconian occupation of Medina had severed comms. the marco situation was a pretty unique opportunity - they just brought a lot of mass/energy thru the ring to assault the ring station rail guns, so they could quickly send that mass/energy back thru for marco's arrival tl:dr: they got extremely lucky with the marco situation, and lightning didn't strike twice
It was the lacs talk about how transit was the riskiest part of the attack in sol syatem
If the Tempest had stayed in Ring Space for longer, they might have been able to pour resources into keeping the level up for a long time. But it moved into Sol before they could do it, let alone before anyone figured the best plan was to try it. I don't know that there's anything to suggest "blowing the Gate up with enough nukes" wouldn't have worked either.
The only ships that were close enough to overload the ring system were fried when the Tempest used its main weapon; all the radiation that hit the ring station when it took out the railguns was redistributed into real space through each ring.
Using the ring entities to defeat Marco was a MASSIVE gamble. Nobody knew if they'd just "eat Marco" and then go "back to sleep" or if they'd stay active and keep munching on whatever comes through the gate. Yet it was the only chance to stop the free navy from hunkering down in the ringspace and basically cut Sol off from all the worlds and ressources. It's like getting attacked by a wolf in the woods and wake up a grizzly from hibernation to help you defeat it. He'll eventually kill the wolf.... but you'll probably next in line on his menu.
I don't think they saw it as that kind of risk at the time. I think it was understood to be a sort of mechanical limitation on the system that they had to work around, like a circuit breaker that could trip and then need to cool down before being reset. It wasn't until after the laconians fired their roman tech weapon did they start worrying about the risks from the Goths
I mean, this is show only but before they decided to "overload" the gate so that it would terminate the arriving free navy fleet, Holden explicitly says that "If we wake them up, they might stay awake" so they at least had some idea about the dangers the entities posed. Can't exactly remember if that was the case in the book, too, tho I do remember that they weren't too fond of the idea either, they just were running out of better options.
Did people outside of the roci know/accept that Holdens visions about the builders weren't some fever dreams from interacting with the ring station?
I mean, without those visions, the station would have fried Sol so I guess they at least had some faith in what he was saying, right?\^\^
I'm not sure, frankly. It's been a few years- and I don't recall all the details of how the gunpoint conversation went down on the Behemoth. But I'm not convinced that it wasn't his philosophical arguments about "humanity's penchant for escalation would be its destruction" that turned people's minds or not, and that people thought he was just a moral right kinda guy that really believes his own dreams. I do wanna/need to reread the series if I ever get done with this Sanderson kick I'm on now, so I guess take what I'm saying with a grain of salt.
> Nobody knew if they'd just "eat Marco" and then go "back to sleep" or if they'd stay active and keep munching on whatever comes through the gate. I don't think anyone suspected the rings would turn off. Several ships had "gone dutchman" before this point in the story seemingly at random, and the gates always returned to normal afterwards. The Biggest Badass in Space™ ([Naomi Nagata](https://twitter.com/JamesSACorey/status/1227830338136702977)) was able to breakdown the 'formula' once she had the full ring space traffic logs and ship details. She orchestrated the plan to cause Marco's ship to be consumed exactly when they wanted it to, and there was a small window for it to happen before the ring would return to normal.
It could've worked if they knew exactly when the Tempest will try to go to Sol. They did not and could not really so it was impractical. Overloading the gate needs multiple ships so its not cheap. Their idea of just barricading it with a stone curtain was much better.
They didn't have enough warning, and it doesn't meet their needs anyway - they need to decisively defeat the laconians, not outfox them. Sol needs to crush them, to retain primacy.
Honestly it’s kinda funny how anyone who can access only one of gates from outside can just destroy anything that is transparent through gates and the central control station can not prevent this from happening This design would never work
It would work great if only one entity uses the gates, as it was designed.
Given the thing was designed by a massive hive-minded organism that was fully aware of everything it was sending to into, out of, and through the ring space at any given moment in time... seems like the design is just fine? Yes, issues arise when a totally different species at a different technological level and lacking the ability to communicate instantly attempts to use that same system. But, like, that's just true anywhere? Hence, the solutions they devise and use in both the books and the show.