Because I have an obsession with the Thing, I was rereading some Thing info when the thought hit me - if the Thing is released into an area with biomass, ie not Antarctica, the world is doomed regardless of of the humans win or not. Why? It would infect the plants too.
...This was brought up in the original derail. The lovely thing is in the event of Jeffreys making humans aplode a planet, Murphy'd still be around ^_^
[Except thermonuclear asplosion of course].
In order to rid the world of the Thing, every plant on Earth would have to be burnt
Why
and at that point it's hopeless to try
Fire beats plant
because the vegetation would fight back
Some trees are so massive they are incapable of harbouring infections - there is so much wood on the outer layers that the trees give no ground. The outer layers are dead.
and without plants there is no oxygen.
21% oxygen atmosphere, expect humans to respond with algae farms and fire everywhere.
The oceans would have to be killed completely as well, completely drained to make sure one single particle didn't get away.
You're not terribly good at the whole "reactionary force" thing? :|
Because it is all life, the only way to get rid of the Thing fully is to make the planet inhospitable to all life.
Or keep it away from areas of inhabited life. I.e. burn. Imagine something out of the mist, but better handled.
If identified immediately, otherwise it would get off planet and infect other worlds. And others. And others. By the time it's discovered (if at all) it will have infected a major portion of the galaxy.
"Noticed anything different about Bob?"
"What the third arm? Yeah haven't you heard, he's on some all protein diet or something."
If the thing found its way onto modern planet Earth - I would fully expect the beautiful scenario where humans across the world trigger the eruption of every volcano on the planet.
And as for Orkz having ice beams... shit, there's probably a mekboy or somethin' out there that's weaponized cyrogenics. And, as McClay noted, it's entirely possible that if the orkz think their weapons will work against Metroids... the weapons will.
The only trouble is getting the Orks to think
Starcraft tech is actually a little crazy in some ways, and shit like zerglings take multiple hits from freaking depleted uranium firing gauss rifles to drop, so yeah.
The marines are just missing all the time. Taking too many stims and emptying magazines all over the place.
Point and case:
*It takes a couple of shots from the ghost to take down a Hydralisk.
In the cinematics:
BOOM HEADSHOT[And while yes Reynor was using high explosive rounds, Warfield did just punch an Hydralisk to death].
Also expect it to do with balance and game scale vs realism, like the banshee in game vs the banshee in universe, which essentially functions as a slow moving harassment air attack vehicle (in game) vs a fast moving ground support bomber (in universe).
In essence, the zerg are fragile enough. Except Ultralisks, which are seen in universe taking siege cannon shots to the face.