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Originally Posted by hal
Just out of curiosity - how does this ship arrive in system? How long does earth have to respond to this potential issue?
Just curious.
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Well, I am assuming that it is a FTL capable spacecraft that enters normal space at a 10 AU FTL limit. Assuming 1g acceleration, the Earth may have a week, if anyone detects it immediately. Of course, the spacecraft would have mobility, but it would be primarily a subjugation station, meant to keep the primitives out of the way while the aliens establish a military station around Saturn and mining stations throughout the Sol System.
In that case, the aliens would probably just want to make sure that nothing leaves the atmosphere of the Earth. They would probably vaporize anything substantial in orbit, just in case it was a hidden weapons platform, which would play havoc with communications, GPS, weather forecasting, etc. After cleaning out the orbits of Earth, it would proceed to remove any launch capabilities of the Earth, probably targeting any ICBMs or similar weapon systems. When it was done with removing launch capabilities, it would probably just maintain watch over the Earth from GSO, in case humanity tried anything clever.