Triumvirate doesn't work, either the commanders would need to be sophisticated and independent enough to rebel or the complexity(and therefore size) of our empire would be limited. Besides, three is far too few to ensure that they are not simultaneously destroyed by a coordinated and informed adversary.
1) We'll not get out of solar system soon enough to worry about that, now
2) There are technological ways to create long range communication to project Queen's will over long distances
3) If we will not have huge population, but concentrate on tech to ensure our might... we'll simply not need huge territory, and concentrate on planets\systems that have key resources, ignoring the rest
4)We can and we must to protect queens adequately
5) We can, and should use bipeds experience... they managed to build an empire in their squashy bodies and crawling reproduction rate
Mobile space suits are a form of guided missile and incur all the listed disadvantages of deceleration and vulnerability with the specific disadvantage of all systems being fixed to the boarding equipment. This would obviously be absolutely impractical due to the relative scale of the soldier compared to the resources necessary to reach a hostile interplanetary vessel.
Do you understand that missile = hole in the enemy ship, but predator inside it's not only almost guaranteed kill, but also likely +1 ship to our fleet?
And spacesuit can be made way way more maneuverable than guided missile
And I don't see extreme costs here... In fact it's much easier to build fleet of spacesuited marines, than proper fleet. While both may be equally deadly, at least against current opponent - humans
1: The logistical pressures of a planetary-scale civilisation require significant calculation capacity and therefore a level of complexity in the periphery management elements. In short, the number of queens is irrelevant, it is the complexity of our civilisation. In order to have any adaptability in our civilisation, we will require a great many more than three entities with the capacity to operate independently.
2: Communication necessitates the ability to be detected, therefore such communication is a vulnerability. Our previous opponents likely possessed a means to detect our communications and used that to murder our previous incarnation.
3: Research capacity is directly bound to possessing a large supply of complex thought. These are the same factors that promote conflicting groups. The alternative would be to possess consistency throughout our race, this would preclude any form of small-scale adaptability.
4: No such protection exists, mass drops can destroy hives, novas can destroy colonies, communications will reveal locations. Our own survival was due only to our isolation and independence. We should not abandon the only facet of our previous incarnation that we know to have been successful.
5: The bipeds are useless, their lack of competent competition is not a valid reason for us to become dependent upon them. Some examination of their civilisation may be profitable, as they do possess a unique perspective on the construction of an empire, and we do not possess any knowledge of the formation of our own empire. But as for incorporating them into our civilisation, they possess a large capacity for rebellion and limited physical and mental capacities. Their only value lies in their functioning empire, which is likely beyond our control and would be better replaced with our own when we have the means to do so.
(military) A self-propelled projectile whose trajectory can be adjusted after having been launched. A single predator is unlikely to survive an assault on an entire hostile vessel of significant value and is unlikely to be capable of operating such a vessel.
A missile that must limit its acceleration to an extent sufficient to maintain the mechanical integrity of a combat-effective entity is far less manoeuvrable than one without mechanical components.
Laser and explosive-missile satellites would be far cheaper and more persistent, and almost certainly more effective, than drones and neither possesses interplanetary-capacity without the assistance of interplanetary vessels.
Stealth is hard to do in space. But we don't want to make ourselves invisible. Also, that's all about spaceships, with engines and running parts and such. A drop pod launched on a predetermined trajectory can easily make it quite close, provided the enemy isn't expecting it(And isn't randomwalking and such). In fact, a small dark, cold object is near impossible to detect.
We just want to look like a piece of debris or something. There's enough of that in Mars orbit. Considering that for much of the time we will be defending, and that most battles will take place in Mars orbit, we have an excellent place for ambushes. Since we can use the debris field and several other engineering tricks to render long range missiles useless, and they have only limited manouvring space, we can certainly get within boarding range.(If it comes to a space battle at all, and they don't slam into a piece of debris, or mass drop the surface.)
Third, we might be able to develop particleweapons that can shortcircuit human electronics quite easily. If we do that, we might need to board and takeover the enemy ship before the marines inside destroy it. There's also the problem that most human ships will be modular build, since that is much easier and cheaper, for only a few tradeoffs. This means that(especially in warships), individual sections in the ship can keep functioning for quite some time even if the ship has been torn apart.
Such a measure might be successful in remaining undetected, but any opposition would likely be monitoring the launching vessel for projectiles. A vessel without propulsion, that requires its contents to survive an impact with another vessel, would require a comparatively low velocity, could not accelerate during the intervening distance, and could not adjust its course to impact with the target, given that it has a limited duration before the thermal output of the life-support functions overwhelm its thermal insulation, it would likely have an extremely limited range, and most engagements would likely be resolved at much greater range. Although perhaps some system involving superluminal transportation could produce the desired range...
In planetary orbit objects would occlude the planet and be highly visible. The inclusion of a drone would require a certain level of energy consumption, thermal energy generation, and either a limited duration or be subject to the limitations of dormancy. And unless the target makes a habit of hitting obstacles, it would require propulsion and sensory apparatus that may be difficult to disguise. While most potential targets would already be on landing vectors, it could potentially be of some value if the enemy could be persuaded to engage in an orbital battle for some reason, although lasers and mass drops would likely have resolved the battle before that point, and a large vessel is not likely to remain within a debris field...
Capturing disabled vessels would indeed be valuable, but would likely not require significant focus in our efforts beyond disabling them. Therefore it seems that increasing our unequipped and close-range capabilities should not be a focus and numerical strength is more difficult to apply than technological strength.
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Topic: You Are A Kai Queen / You Are A Kai Commander, Day 41 (Read 86416 times)