When the Imperial armada englobes and attacks Avalon, fireballs in space hurt eyes and cast shadows on the surface. The wrecked and abandoned artificial planetoid, Hell Rock, detects and fires on the enemy but is weak enough to be bypassed. The remnant Avalonian navy gathers and skulks one or two a.u.s away.
The armada systematically reduces orbital fortresses in hundreds of orbits at hundreds of angles. Continually resupplied from the surface, the fortresses are mostly automated and some have remained undetected. Squadrons repeatedly attack at high acceleration and recede at unpredictable vectors. Missiles rising through atmosphere against gravity "...from zero initial speed..." (p. 626) cannot hit such ships and stop trying. On the moon, Morgana, mountains crumble and valleys become molten.
The armada focuses on those fortresses that would threaten the intended landing force and also on those surface defenses that start to destroy ships as they approach the atmosphere.
Yet again, Poul Anderson writes like a veteran of space combat.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I agree with your last sentence here. And Jerry Pournelle was esp. good at describing futuristic combat on other planets, in his Co-Dominium timeline.
Sean
This blog post
https://toughsf.blogspot.com/2017/10/anti-orbit-laser-submarines.html
talks about an option for a society on an inhabitable world in a situation like Avalon in "People of the Wind".
In a comment I mention a scene in the novel "Antares Dawn" by Michael McCollum in which something similar is used. This is another case of plausible depictions of space combat.
Kaor, Paul and Jim!
Paul: Another thought I had was realizing First Marchwarden Ferune and Daniel Holm had planned these defenses in such a way that the Imperials would be more likely than not to attack at certain places. And in such a way they would be more likely to land at places they would prefer them to. Luring them into a trap.
And the unusually massive defenses of Avalon were largely due to the nagging, prodding, arm and wing twisting of Holm. Most Avalonian politicians were content with defenses sufficient for repelling barbarian raiders of the kind seen during the Troubles. Defenses totally inadequate against a powerful civilized state.
Jim: ANTARES DAWN seems interesting. I should look up Andrew McCollum.
Ad astra! Sean
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