Is Humanity Fated to Extinction? How Would You Save SICON?

[oni]

Taking it as a given for a moment that a truce or peace could never be established and all-out war to the death is the only option, defeating the bug comes down to understanding where the bug is strong and weak.

You could...

Shoot the Bug - A simple solution, and one taking place all along the front lines.
Advantages: reduces the volume of bugs in an area.
Disadvantages: the bugs breed too fast and too greatly outnumber humanity for this to be a permanent military solution.

Gas the Bug - Using chemical compounds and neurotoxins lethal to the Arachnid life forms, humanity can attempt to poison all bugs it encounters.
Advantages: easy deployment from orbit or by fast moving MI gas deployment teams minimizes the need for vulnerable ground forces.
Disadvantages: bug technology is based on genetic engineering. As in terran insects, immunities will almost surely be developed, making this a temporary situation only.

Confuse the Bug - Using humanities developing psychic ability, Intel develops a method in which the connection between the Brain bug and its subordinates can be severed.
Advantages: no need to exterminate the bug, because it no longer can coordinate its forces into an interplanetary threat.
Disadvantages: not yet demonstrated as possible.

And so on... clearly the weak point in the empire is the connection between brain and bug. Break that, and the rest is cleanup. Already, we know human psychics can (in the movie) tell what a Brain is thinking. In the cartoon this game is closely based on, we see that a psychic can literally explode a Brain bug, and that the bugs can fully assimilate a human being. It could be imagined that a powerful enough psychic would themself act as a brain bug and command Arachnid forces, using their own numbers against them.

But, if Barcalow's fate as a hybrid in the cartoon is something that could happen to anyone, it could mean that humanity will not go extinct at the end of the bug war regardless, because they will have become a part of the Arachnid species.

 

[Ragnarok]

Welcome, oni - that's a well-thought-out post.

I finished reading it with a shudder, though, when you wrote: "But, if Barcalow's fate as a hybrid in the cartoon is something that could happen to anyone, it could mean that humanity will not go extinct at the end of the bug war regardless, because they will have become a part of the Arachnid species."

Oni, if humanity becomes part of the Arachnid species (ala Xander), then humanity as a species WOULD become extinct. Humanity would have been assimilated by the bugs and, although in some places the bugs would be altered by the genetic engineering, they'd still be bugs. Humanity, though, would be gone.

 

[oni]

Good point Ragnarok, and from a philosphical point of view its certainly true, as well as a genetic one.

But, when Barcalow went over to the other side, the change in his personality was like the flick of a switch, from man good, bug bad, to bug good, man bad. He retained the ability to speak and think coherently, albiet for the other team. This opens up a horrific eventuality if humanity were to lose to the bugs...

Worse than simple extinction, the Arachnid forces would now have morale and communication elements to send ahead to planets chosen for destruction. Imagine a Skinny or Forth or what ever might be out there, being told in his native language by a towering hybrid form that if his species will lay down their arms, the Arachnid will offer peace... and the inevitable butchery that would follow for any species foolish enough to accept the false olive branch.

The bugs would gain the ability to create, to read, to lie, to conduct psychological operations on an entirely new scale.

Perhaps classical humanity would be gone, but our name would still be cursed on a thousand worlds as the Arachnid marched triumphant with very powerful new allies in their genetic clutches...

 

[Galatea]

I think eventually the bugs will come to understand human minds quite well, and assuming we use a nova bomb or two, or simply produce better tactics for destroying bugs, they may very well seek a peace, especially if the Forth and Skinnies become co-belligerents

You don't wanna use Nova Bombs against Bugs. Remember the warp drive of the Skinnies.
If the bugs find out how mighty such weapons are they will do ANYTHING to get one of those (or the brain of a human with the technical knowledge about them) and will very fast evolve their own biological equivalents. Faster than you can completely eradicate them.
As said human space is much smaller than the Arachnid Empire - so it's not much targets for the bugs to bomb.
Probably blowing away Sol would be completely enough.

 

[Makoto]

That's extremely easy to avoid - simply don't train infantrymen in operating Novas, and fleet crews are way too hard for bugs to capture and "interrogate", thus giving them no way of extracting any data about the weapon. And if the bugs could've come up by themselves w/something better than throwing a hunk of rock they already would.

 

[Galatea]

Bugs have no space warships for one reason - they don't need them.
You can be sure if they decide that they have a need for warships and assault boats they will pretty fast evolve some really good ones.

Or they could just as good simply retreat, hide and breed a new army and a fleet because humanity can't expand that fast and they can't blow up every system.


But after all the bug seems to get humanities smaller problem. As the fluff in the skinnie book predicts they are about to get stuck into a multi-front war. Bugs can afford being in war with multiple enemies, for SICON it will get quit harsh.

The best method against bugs is probably fortifying any own system so massive that it can't be successfully attacked. And then slowly expand, one or two systems at a time.
You don't need to eradicate the bugs as long as you can shut your own worlds against them.

 

[Hiromoon]

Well, initially they didn't need them, but adaptation occured.

I mean, the transport bug seems to have plasma bugs that cling to it for self defense in space....

 

[cordas]

Well, initially they didn't need them, but adaptation occured.

I mean, the transport bug seems to have plasma bugs that cling to it for self defense in space....

Ouch nasty, I take it they occur in the TV series..... Not been able to get past pluto when borrowing them off a mate *SIGH*.

 

[Hiromoon]

Yep, and you can see it in the 'Trackers' storyline for Roughnecks.

Given time, they could come up with a breed of Hopper/Rippler that can go toe-to-toe with a Tac Fighter.

 

[Poko]

If the bugs find out how mighty such weapons are they will do ANYTHING to get one of those

that would be...hard. i mean, the usage of nova bomb, it seems, means immediate destruction of the entire planet. any brain currently communicating with the brain on that planet would simply register that the other one ceased to exist. they could not know HOW exactly they were killed. even if they gathered that the entire pkanet was gone, just how exactly it was done would be rather hard to find out.

 

[tneva82]

The best method against bugs is probably fortifying any own system so massive that it can't be successfully attacked. And then slowly expand, one or two systems at a time.
You don't need to eradicate the bugs as long as you can shut your own worlds against them.

Which incidently happens to be what federation is doing according to fluff in MI army book :wink:

 

[5.56 Surgeon]

One thing the bugs have going for them is patience. The hive is nearly wiped out? Move some eggs and whatnot to a new location and wait. The MI think they got them all, and a few weeks or months later, BAM! The garrison left behind gets overrun.

They ought to call it the Custer Effect, cause it happens with regularity.

 

[Ragnarok]

Following up on Hiromoon's quotes: "Well, initially they didn't need them, but adaptation occured. I mean, the transport bug seems to have plasma bugs that cling to it for self defense in space...." and "...you can see it in the 'Trackers' storyline for Roughnecks."

Anyone notice the "mini-transport bugs" the decoy transport bug deployed in "Trackers"? They seem to have had the same M.O. as kamakaze ripplers, that is, plow into SICON ships. The Valley Forge maneuvered to avoid them and/or shoot them down with a passion, but the show never revealed what an impact would have done.

 

[rico chay]

there is much to be said on all sides of the argument here gentlemen, but check out page 110 of the main (non-evo) rulebook:

"Briefing 10-09ARA, Military Intelligence

On the matter of transport bugs and other forms of Arachnids, an intriguing and alarming possibility has been raised within our psychic corps. Each Arachnid seems to be perfectly adapted for its role and exhibits traits that are almost impossible to explain throughhuman scientific understanding. Uropygi, for example, should not be able to support their own weight given their size.

This leads us to post a supposition, much against our normal policyof reporting only factual information to your office. the perfect environmental suitability of every new form of Arachnid discovered strongly suggests that they are indeed tailord to perform unique actions during a battle. It is possible that the Arachnids are nothing more than a created, self sustaining military force designed by a second, previously unknown race. It is doubtful that the skinnies are behind the arachnid menace; if they were, they would certainly use them during their raids.

We will continue to devote a small portion of our resources to discovering the origins of the Arachnids. If it transpires thatthey are indeed a form of biological weapon system (as we suspect), SICON may well be fighting the wrong opponent."

...?