Quote:
Originally Posted by Fireminer
Just watching "World War Z" and I realized there are a lot of similar of BETA to Zombie. Most noticable are:
1. They are all recycled human corpses.
2. Quantity-tactic.
3. Very hard to kill.
Also, I came to this conclusion that Semi-Automatic (short bursts) is much more useful than Full-Automatic. I mean that TSF squads often find themself surrounded and cut off from the supply. The BETA would also need much more precisive shots to be taken down, which could be easier archived with Semi-Automatic. And not to mention the posibility of overheat.
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This is (mostly) not accurate, both from the viewpoint of mainstay Alternative VNs, and the expanded material. Please read them more carefully.
...But who am I kidding, I will answer each point separately, just in case.
1.) I will keep saying this until people are sick of it - BETA are not zombies in the Hollywood sense. They. ARE. NOT. Please go back and redo your science classes.
The important part is to remember that BETA are
machines, they are not
life in the common sense of the word. Of course, that's a bit hypocrtical, because as high-level biology will tell you, we
are machines, and pretty damn perfect - the difference is that we are self-aware, and made of "fleshy" bits. In fact, advanced computer technology that we have created was specifically based upon our nervous system and brain, it's just that we used silicon and metals in their construction, not flesh.
Now, BETA are machines - they refer to themselves as machines in the first place. The difference is that they have been made using flesh and biology. Now, the Creators posses incredibly advanced technology - including the (implied) existence of tech that allows matter conversion. In short, with enough energy, it is possible to break down
any source of matter into its basic particles. In case of BETA, the materials they collect - natural resources (coal, oil, gems etc.), trees, human corpses etc., are all taken and broken down into carbon mass. With this kind of carbon "sludge", the BETA can do pretty much anything with it. They can use it to build a nuclear submarine, or create more BETA. BETA are not explicitly made out of people - but we
are numerous, and if given a chance, a BETA worker will haul our corpse back to Hive to be dissolved. An average BETA trooper would most likely be made out of composition of wood, rocks and several people - except that they would all be first broken down into carbon, and the remade into the whatever material BETA are made from.
It's high level theoretical physics, but it has been worked on, irl.
By contrast, zombies explicitly multiply by infecting other people. You can't make a zombie out of a plant. You can make a laser-class BETA out of a forest though.
2)It's hard to speak of tactics when zombies lack anything besides their most basic instinct to murder all life.
While individual BETA are not explicitly "smart" by human standards, on strategical level, they're actually quite capable. They managed to outmaneuver and outgun two world empires; destroyed almost entire industrial capacity of planet Earth, and systematically destroyed almost every human city across Eurasia.
Keep also in mind, that BETA Superior is capable of actually
outthinking humans, as Battle for Yokohama shows, where UN troops are almost completely owned by BETA tactics.
Thinking that BETA are dumb animals is
exactly what Superior wants you to do, and mankind has been pretty much dancing in the palm of its tentacles.
Additionally, it's important to note that humans have trouble anticipating BETA strategies; and it most likely works both ways. It's possible that BETA are expert strategists...but their strategies might not work against something as incomprehensible to them as human mind. (Note that when BETA inadvertently learn in M-L: A how humans think, the human forces pretty much start get massacred).
3)BETAs are harder to kill - most zombies are killed by headshots, leaving the question of how good of a shot you are (most soldiers are trained to actually aim at the corpus, because accurately aiming automatic rifles is not easy, especially at a relatively small target like head).
BETA do not accurately reassemble humans, and thus can sustain injuries in an area that would otherwise kill humans. For example, Grappler-class "head" is in fact only a sensor module; blowing it up won't instantly kill Grappler like it would kill zombies.
4.)Because of the above, precise fire with BETA is not exactly worth much. Especially since most BETA strains are quite big anyway, you
don't have to be accurate to damage them anyway, or because their toughness would mean that you wouldn't do more damage then by just punching them full of holes.
Semi-automatic fire may be good for dedicated sniper units (which are rare), but they are useless in frontal combat, when you need the maximum volume of fire to stop the BETA. Taking a few potshots at them won't be enough- you need a literal wall of fire to even
slow them down - which is why almost every TSF weapon is some sort of automatic firearm.
Additionally, barrels can be replaced. US machine gunners did it all the way back during WW2 when dealing with massed Japanese assaults. Barrels too hot to fire? Change it. Sure, it's a lapse in fire, but so is changing of a magazine.