[FT] Crew quality house rules [Longish]

> I like the idea of doing crew quality stuff but what about the

> Yep.

Having just re-read the Honor Harrington Series I have a couple quotes
from the books that might help prove the advantage of a good crew. Or at

least interest someone enough to go check the books out, they are quite
good. One can get books 1 + 2 at
www.baen.com
http://www.baen.com/library/defaultTitles.htm

Goto the Free Library section and Author David Weber. Book 1 is On Basilisk
Station.
http://www.baen.com/library/067157793X/067157793X.htm

All the books are   on CDs that one can freely copy and share, one can
DL them by BitTorrent from here
http://oberon.zlynx.org/

They are often compared to C.S. Foresters Horatio Hornblower in space.

Anyway... Here be a couple relevant quotes on Good Crew VS bad crew. I will
leave some spoiler space just in case. This is from Book 6: Honor Among
Enemies and Book 2: The Honor of the Queen. I think there is enough to get the
idea across, but not clog ones inbox up to badly.

------ Book 6: Honor Among Enemies
------ Book 6: Honor Among Enemies
------ Book 6: Honor Among Enemies
------ Book 6: Honor Among Enemies
------ Book 6: Honor Among Enemies
------ Book 6: Honor Among Enemies
------ Book 6: Honor Among Enemies
------ Book 6: Honor Among Enemies
------ Book 6: Honor Among Enemies
------ Book 6: Honor Among Enemies
------ Book 6: Honor Among Enemies
------ Book 6: Honor Among Enemies
------ Book 6: Honor Among Enemies
------ Book 6: Honor Among Enemies
------ Book 6: Honor Among Enemies
------ Book 6: Honor Among Enemies
------ Book 6: Honor Among Enemies
------ Book 6: Honor Among Enemies
------ Book 6: Honor Among Enemies
------ Book 6: Honor Among Enemies
------ Book 6: Honor Among Enemies
------ Book 6: Honor Among Enemies
------ Book 6: Honor Among Enemies
------ Book 6: Honor Among Enemies
------ Book 6: Honor Among Enemies
------ Book 6: Honor Among Enemies
------ Book 6: Honor Among Enemies
------ Book 6: Honor Among Enemies
------ Book 6: Honor Among Enemies

Wait! His eyes popped open, and he punched a query into his probe, then
grinned fiercely. It was completely against The Book, and it would be
cumbersome as hell, but if he took down Radar Six and routed the input from
Grave Two through Six's systems to Auxiliary Radar at Junction
Three-Sixty-One, then ran a hardwired shunt from AuxRad—

... Snip ...

Aubrey's fingers flew, setting up the required commands. He was working as
much by feel as training, for no one had ever tried anything like this before,
so far as he knew, but there wasn't time to work it all out
properly. His execution files were quick and dirty, but they /ought/ to
do the trick, and he dropped his control box and ripped open his tool kit.

... SNIP ...

"Do your best," Hughes said grimly, and Aubrey hurled himself under the radar
display, burrowing into the limited space so quickly Jansen didn't have time
to get out of the way. The lieutenant gave a chopped off, surprised cry, then
snatched his feet out of Aubrey's path, and the tech ripped the front off the
main panel. He forced himself to take a moment, making sure of his
identification, then clamped the heavy alligator clips to the input terminals.
He rolled onto his back, sat up, grabbed the edge of the console, and sent
himself slithering across the decksole on the seat of his trousers, then
rolled under Wolcott's panel.

Unlike Jansen, the assistant tac officer had seen him coming, and she turned
her chair sideways to give him room to work even as she continued driving her
sensors

... SNIP ...

"Incoming birds in acquisition!" Jansen sang out, then swore as Aubrey reached
out, clamped his cable to the terminals under Wolcott's console,
and brought his improvised software on-line. "We've lost Radar Six!
Going to emergency override Baker-Three!"

"/Gravitics up!/" Wolcott shouted in sudden triumph. "Enemy missile
platforms bear zero-one-niner two-zero-three, range one-point-five
million klicks! Designate them Bogies Fourteen and Fifteen! They look like a
couple of converted freighters, Ma'am!"

"Got 'em!" Hughes barked back. "Stand by to roll pods!"

"Programming fire control," Wolcott replied. A handful of seconds ticked past,
and then. "Solution accepted and locked! Pods ready!"

"Roll them!" Hughes snapped, and six missile pods spilled from
/Wayfarer/'s stern. Their sudden appearance took the raiders by
surprise, and no one even tried to fire on them before attitude thrusters
kicked them to the right bearing and they launched. Sixty missiles, far
heavier than anything the raiders had, shrieked towards their targets, and
Aubrey rolled up on his knees, panting, to watch their tracks cross the main
plot. The laser heads reached attack range
and detonated, and scores of x-ray lasers ripped at the missile ships.
Their defenses were even weaker than /Wayfarer/'s; they never had a
chance, and both of them blew apart under the terrible pounding.

...SNIP...

"I—" Aubrey looked at the missile defense officer, then swallowed again,
harder. "I didn't think about that, Sir. It was just, well, it was the only
thing I could think of, and—"

"And there wasn't time to discuss it," Lady Harrington finished for him. "Well
done, Wanderman. Very well done. That was quick thinking—and it showed
initiative, too." She studied Aubrey thoughtfully, and her 'cat turned his
head to bend his own green eyes upon the electronics tech. "I don't believe I
ever saw that particular trick pulled before." "That's because it shouldn't
work," Hughes pointed out. She punched up something on her own terminal and
studied it for a moment, then
whistled. "There /is/ a cross-link at Three-Sixty-One, but I still don't
see how he forced data compatibility. For that matter, he had to convince
battle comp to bring three independent buses into it."

She shook her head in disbelief, and all eyes turned to Aubrey, who wished he
could sink through the decksole. But the Captain only smiled and cocked an
eyebrow at him.

"Where'd you get the software for it?" she asked, and Aubrey shrugged
uncomfortably."I, uh, sort of made it up as I went along... Ma'am," he
admitted, and she laughed.

------ Book 2: The Honor of the Queen
------ Book 2: The Honor of the Queen
------ Book 2: The Honor of the Queen
------ Book 2: The Honor of the Queen
------ Book 2: The Honor of the Queen
------ Book 2: The Honor of the Queen
------ Book 2: The Honor of the Queen
------ Book 2: The Honor of the Queen
------ Book 2: The Honor of the Queen
------ Book 2: The Honor of the Queen
------ Book 2: The Honor of the Queen
------ Book 2: The Honor of the Queen
------ Book 2: The Honor of the Queen
------ Book 2: The Honor of the Queen
------ Book 2: The Honor of the Queen
------ Book 2: The Honor of the Queen
------ Book 2: The Honor of the Queen
------ Book 2: The Honor of the Queen
------ Book 2: The Honor of the Queen
------ Book 2: The Honor of the Queen
------ Book 2: The Honor of the Queen
------ Book 2: The Honor of the Queen
------ Book 2: The Honor of the Queen
------ Book 2: The Honor of the Queen
------ Book 2: The Honor of the Queen
------ Book 2: The Honor of the Queen

/Thunder of God/'s second salvo fared almost as badly as the first, and
Simonds wrenched around to glare at his tactical section, then bit back his
scathing rebuke. Ash and his assistants were crouched over their panels, but
their systems were feeding them too much data to absorb, and their reactions
were almost spastic, flurries of action as the computers pulled it together
and suggested alternatives interspersed by bouts of
white-faced impotence as they tried to anticipate those suggestions.

He needed Yu and Manning, and he didn't have them. Ash and his people
simply didn't have the exper-

/Thunder of God/ heaved as two more lasers ripped through his sidewall
and gouged into his hull.

<BIG SNIP>

"Well, Lieutenant?"

"Sir, we've completed our analysis. I'm sorry we took so long, but-"

"Never mind that, Lieutenant." It came out more brusquely than he'd intended,
and Simonds tried to soften it with a smile. He knew Ash and his people were
almost as tired as he was, and they'd had to run their analysis with reference
manuals almost literally in their laps. That was

one reason he'd been willing to waste time trying to outmaneuver Harrington.
He'd been fairly certain the attempt would fail, but he'd had no intention of
reengaging until Ash had time to digest what he'd learned from the first
clash.

"I understand your difficulties," Simonds said more gently. "Just tell me what
you've learned."