No Surrender, No Retreat ( *Spoilers* )

[B5JMS Poster]

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From: ck at zipcon.net ( )
Date: 30 May 1997 00:52:01 -0400
Lines: 74

Spoilers for No Surrender, No Retreat

























Spoiler space for No Surrender, No Retreat













A miniature "Severed Dreams" in reverse. Neat. The strategy was
interesting, the group dynamics on the ships believable (well, except for
Sheridan's convenient friend/teacher on one of the ships - I can gloss
over that), the battle furious yet respectful of the horrors of war.
And Sheridan did it all with maddening restraint and a surgeon's touch. 
All your hallmarks. 

Now that I've buttered you up, here's my beef: were these White Stars
tired or something? I would've expected that a couple of them could just
go slice-slice, sever the rotating sections on the EA ships and have 'em
for breakfast. 

I mean, WS ships are Minbari/Vorlon hybrids, very fast and maneuverable,
each one has the firepower of almost a Vorlon cruiser. These things fought
Shadow vessels large and small and either evaded or adapted to 'em. 

So why were EA ships able to track these things at all? The logical leap
is that EA ships couldn't track Minbari vessels, and these things are part
Minbari? Why could EA ships damage them, since they'd adapted to be able
to take hits from a Shadow vessel? Or get a lock on them with
unidirectional weapons while they were zipping about all over the place?
And all this in mind, why risk valuable, fragile, irreplacable B5 fighter
squads when the WS fleet alone could do the job?

In short, the battle scene kinda blew my sense of scale a bit, marvelous
as it was. The White Stars have been established in the show to be a lot
stronger, and Earth ships a lot weaker, than here.


-- 
Chris Keroack	<*>	The only joy in the world is to begin. 
ck at zipcon.net	<*>				- Cesare Pavese



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From: jmsatb5 at aol.com (Jms at B5)
Date: 30 May 1997 13:16:05 -0400
Lines: 16

"were these White Stars tired or something? I would've expected that a
couple of them could just go slice-slice, sever the rotating sections on
the EA ships and have 'em for breakfast."

Sure, if all you're interested in is slaughtering the opposition...they
were designed for "destroy"...when you have to pull your punches to avoid
just going in and killing EVERYthing in sight...which will only work
*against* you in the long run, it becomes more difficult.


 jms





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