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DoomRavager · 2012-07-12, 08:39

I don't see what silicon has to do with anything, since BETA are carbon based. The value of a nuclear bomb when fighting BETA would not be the long-term effects of ionizing radiation, but the heat and mechanical shockwave produced by the explosion, since the ionizing radiation does jack all to them.

A ground burst delivery system would have to be pretty close to the ground, low enough to keep other BETA between it and any lasers until it gets close enough, and maneuverable enough that it can rapidly shift trajectories on a dime to remain that way, since the BETA do actively coordinate to move aside and clear paths for lasers to high-priority targets, which nukes would be.

Actually, if you're going to go that far, they might as well just put the warhead in a suicide TSF and have TSFs get close in to detonate with a pilot crazy/sacrificial enough to do it, since TSFs fit the bill for what you'd need a ground delivery system to do. They kind of already do that with the S-11s anyway, but suicide generally seems to be out of the question unless they're stuck deep in a Hive cut off from all support or something, since the 'proper' use of an S-11 generally involves setting the timer, dropping it and getting the hell out of the blast radius, as opposed to setting it off right away and dying for it. In Chronicles 02 a TSF did manually deliver an S-11 to the battlefield and blow up a Carrier-class BETA, though there weren't any lasers active at that engagement.

Long story short, they don't think up convoluted nuke delivery methods because the system of plot and narrative causality doesn't want them to, the lasers are just a plot device to say "NO PLANES NO NUKES". It's a bit of a handwave, I suppose.

2012-07-12, 08:39	Link #72
DoomRavager Senior Member Join Date: May 2010	I don't see what silicon has to do with anything, since BETA are carbon based. The value of a nuclear bomb when fighting BETA would not be the long-term effects of ionizing radiation, but the heat and mechanical shockwave produced by the explosion, since the ionizing radiation does jack all to them. A ground burst delivery system would have to be pretty close to the ground, low enough to keep other BETA between it and any lasers until it gets close enough, and maneuverable enough that it can rapidly shift trajectories on a dime to remain that way, since the BETA do actively coordinate to move aside and clear paths for lasers to high-priority targets, which nukes would be. Actually, if you're going to go that far, they might as well just put the warhead in a suicide TSF and have TSFs get close in to detonate with a pilot crazy/sacrificial enough to do it, since TSFs fit the bill for what you'd need a ground delivery system to do. They kind of already do that with the S-11s anyway, but suicide generally seems to be out of the question unless they're stuck deep in a Hive cut off from all support or something, since the 'proper' use of an S-11 generally involves setting the timer, dropping it and getting the hell out of the blast radius, as opposed to setting it off right away and dying for it. In Chronicles 02 a TSF did manually deliver an S-11 to the battlefield and blow up a Carrier-class BETA, though there weren't any lasers active at that engagement. Long story short, they don't think up convoluted nuke delivery methods because the system of plot and narrative causality doesn't want them to, the lasers are just a plot device to say "NO PLANES NO NUKES". It's a bit of a handwave, I suppose. Last edited by DoomRavager; 2012-07-12 at 08:55.