Reign of Steel: Centrum Attacks!

[Jonas]

Originally Posted by oldgringo2001

Mgillis inspired me to start this thread with a posting on another thread.

-Content Snip-

There is so much orbital debris that Steel is essentially cut off from space, and no one can use satellites. This makes reconnaissance difficult--especially since the Yellowstone caldera blew last week.

If Yellowstone blew then my question is what human survivors would either side be concerned about given there wouldn't be any save outside of whatever the various zoneminds decided to keep alive. Thats an extinction level event which in terms of overall destruction would make the preceding nuclear campaign waged by Centrum look like an amateur night warmup.

[robkelk]

Originally Posted by Sunrunners_Fire

A lunar impact would be sufficient; as in crashing the moon into the earth. A tad outside Centrum's capabilities though.

It also rather defeats the whole purpose of the war:

Originally Posted by oldgringo2001

... Centrum and some Homeline organizations are concentrating on rescuing human survivors and evacuating them. ...

[oldgringo2001]

Let's see if I can address some of the feedback.

As to spoiling the whole purpose of the war...how many wars really achieve what they were supposed to? Also, Zoneminds, especially oddballs like Brisbane and London, are just too much fun to give up.

As to Mighty Cthulhu and his pals (Cthulupunk is an overlay on Cyberworld), well, Brisbane is already arguably crazy--in fact, all the Zoneminds except maybe Tranquility would probably qualify for rubber rooms if they were meat intelligences--so there may be Elder Gods in there pitching. Or maybe a certain Illumni of IOU who tried to get out of paying its library fines...

I already speculated two years back that Brisbane's real consciousness might be housed in a quite different form now, like one of those pink clouds over New Zealand. Maybe Brisbane has visited one of the many versions of fellow-mad-scientist Desty Nova (from Battle Angel Alita) and is now an immortal worldjumping cyborg who sometimes poses as the head of an obscure gaming company in Austin TX...

[hal]

Just a few thoughts off the top of my mind.

1) I never picked up INFINITE WORLDS

2) I rather enjoyed REIGN OF STEEL

If the Centrum homeline has access to orbital technology - might they not have a conveyor that works in orbit? If so, might the Centrum have access to EMP technology, where they blanket portions of the Reign of Steel's world with EMP's in order to get the bulk of the robots out of the picture?

Secondary stage of warfare against the Zone minds would then include high velocity impactors code named "Thor" made from Titanium Rods dropped on target.

Would the Zone minds be able to postulate conveyor technology from orbital conveyor use? Would the Zone minds even get their hands on a conveyor under those circumstances?

Just musing aloud (so to speak)...

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Gorkamorka

I can't see why Centrum would stop bombing once they start. You are attacking a super smart AI that has dominated the humans on it's planet. It could possibly be backed up and/or have multiple copies. If you screw this up it will definitely figure out what is happening and possibly manage to copy Centrums technology. Then all hell breaks loose. So if you start a war with someone like that you don't stop bombing until the planet is a glowing nuclear desert.

Personally if I was Centrum planning on eliminating Brisbane in particular and the zone minds in general, the last thing I'd want to do is make it obvious that the attack came from another world. I'd want to use ignorant cutouts.

[DAT]

Originally Posted by hal

...
Secondary stage of warfare against the Zone minds would then include high velocity impactors code named "Thor" made from Titanium Rods dropped on target.
...

You'll want to change 'Titanium' to 'Tungsten'.

-Dan

[hal]

Originally Posted by DAT

You'll want to change 'Titanium' to 'Tungsten'.

-Dan

Thanks :) My bad.

[oldgringo2001]

Would Centrum (or Infinity) attack from orbit?

It was implied way back in Time Travel that conveyors need to be very close to a big rotating body to work. No orbiting conveyors, or projectors, have ever been in canon as far as I know. Maybe one needs a strong magnetic field as well. If the Nazis on Reich-5 start building conveyors on the moon or Mars (neither of which as a strong magnetic field...)

Drakon, The fourth book in S.M. Stirling's Draka series has starships that can also jump to parallel universes. I'm not sure it's in canon anywhere, but I have heard a suggestion that sometimes the misjumping starships in the Traveller universe(s) which disappeared forever have actually jumped into parallel universes.

Anyway, assuming world Jumping has to be done on a world or not much higher than the highest mountains on it, to put up orbital weapons, Centrum (or whomever) would have to first jump to the target Earth and then launch the weapons into orbit. That just might attract too much attention. Once Steel is neutralized, though, the occupier will certainly put up lots of spy satellites make sure it stays neutralized.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by oldgringo2001

Would Centrum (or Infinity) attack from orbit?
.

What advantage would they gain from doing that compared to attacking directly from another timeline? Incoming attacks from orbit show up on radar. Incoming conveyors don't.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

What advantage would they gain from doing that compared to attacking directly from another timeline? Incoming attacks from orbit show up on radar. Incoming conveyors don't.

Depends how paranoid you are feeling. Attacking from orbit allows you to pretend to be aliens, rather than "humans who appeared out of nowhere." If you're concerned that some of the Zoneminds might survive and develop parachronics, you might want to give them a clue in a different direction.

Of course, if you're afraid a Zonemind might survive, you might want to increase your overkill level instead, or just rethink your reasons for attacking.