What, no planet kablooey?

I just recalled that Q from Star Trek: Next Gen, was accused of "misplacing" an entire galaxy. Of course, the Q are like Gods. This particular Q was miscreant.

Another ultimate weapon from Doctor Who, The Day of the Doctor 2013, was The Moment, also known as the Galaxy Eater.

For an ultimate weapon it did not look very impressive, being a small wooden box with clockwork mechanisms, although it did have a rather sexy interface, Billie Piper.

(It also had a sense of humour as when the War Doctor, John Hurt came to use it, it had produced a big read button in answer to his earlier complaint about why wasn't there a big red button?)

Psyche profile needed to become. . .
a planet killer?



The entire ordeal of destroying a planet has always affected me probably like none other. What type of person can willingly be part of something like that and it not affect them in debilitating psychological ways? If it were me aboard a ship responsible for destroying an entire planet, I'd self destruct. I would hear screaming voices in my waking sleep forever. Destroying a planet of conquering insects or mindless automatons is one thing. But to snuff out an entire planet of fellow human beings is quite another. I, personally, cannot conceive of having the intestinal fortitude to commit. Even for a military I so solemnly swore to serve. I cannot see even a Solly sitting still and following those orders.

About this Eridani Edict. During the Final Wars, Beowulf was instrumental in saving the lives of the galaxy?

What would have been done if Beowulf and the medical establishment did NOT find a cure for the mistakes of the Final Wars and it threatened the galaxy at large?

Would Mother Earth have become the first galaxy wide acceptance of an entire planet's destruction?

The needs of the many. . .

I'm kinda surprised nobody remembered John Ringo's "Little Black Box" from "Into the Looking Glass." It has a small problem with electricity, ANY electricity. Hooking it to a single double A battery resulted in a 10 mile wide crater. Hooking it to 3 phase current resulted in the following exchange:
"Holy Toledo," Miller said, wonderingly. He hit the gas jets on his EVA pack and turned around. Sure enough, the gate was floating in space. "Didn't we just put this thing down on a planet yesterday?"
"That's not the scary part," Bill said, spinning around. "Didn't there used to be a sun?"

doug941 wrote:I'm kinda surprised nobody remembered John Ringo's "Little Black Box" from "Into the Looking Glass." It has a small problem with electricity, ANY electricity. Hooking it to a single double A battery resulted in a 10 mile wide crater. Hooking it to 3 phase current resulted in the following exchange:
"Holy Toledo," Miller said, wonderingly. He hit the gas jets on his EVA pack and turned around. Sure enough, the gate was floating in space. "Didn't we just put this thing down on a planet yesterday?"
"That's not the scary part," Bill said, spinning around. "Didn't there used to be a sun?"

So, even a small amount of energy - let's say millijoules, the amount of energy involved in a static discharge - should be more than enough to take out a building?

"Don't touch that!"

"Where's our house?"

I sure hope that darn thing's insulated, but of course it is if the inventor is smart. But then, how can an inventor be smart, who would build something like that!? It's a wonder man hasn't already built something that will put his eye out.

munroburton wrote:

cthia wrote:Eridani Edict!

This Edict is responsible for something else missing in the Honorverse -- a planet killer! And relatedly, attitudes that wish to destroy planets -- though not always human -- and oftentimes not -- throughout my media excursions.

What follows are some examples, though in no way even close to exhaustive. I guess we should be thankful that RFC deviated from the norm. The worry is there, less the effort.

RFC did turn it up to 11 in his Dahak series. One of the empires at one point had more than a quarter million warships of similar size to the Death Star, not to mention the latest generation of the gravitionic warhead in book 3...

IOW, RFC fought down the urge to destroy a planet in the Honorverse, but the mounting pressure on his sensibilities while penning characters like, oh, Pavel Young, redlined the gauges, shook the entire boiler room, stripped the flanges and welded the relief valves shut, which produced enough steam that he created the Dahak series just to release the pressure to kill big?

Shame on RFC for letting Young get to him like that.

Eating lots of celery ain't good for treecats or humans.

Earning lots of celery could counterbalance the equation. LOL


I really gotta read the Dahak series.

cthia wrote:

doug941 wrote:I'm kinda surprised nobody remembered John Ringo's "Little Black Box" from "Into the Looking Glass." It has a small problem with electricity, ANY electricity. Hooking it to a single double A battery resulted in a 10 mile wide crater. Hooking it to 3 phase current resulted in the following exchange:
"Holy Toledo," Miller said, wonderingly. He hit the gas jets on his EVA pack and turned around. Sure enough, the gate was floating in space. "Didn't we just put this thing down on a planet yesterday?"
"That's not the scary part," Bill said, spinning around. "Didn't there used to be a sun?"

So, even a small amount of energy - let's say millijoules, the amount of energy involved in a static discharge - should be more than enough to take out a building?

"Don't touch that!"

"Where's our house?"

I sure hope that darn thing's insulated, but of course it is if the inventor is smart. But then, how can an inventor be smart, who would build something like that!? It's a wonder man hasn't already built something that will put his eye out.

In that book, nobody knows exactly what the inventor was thinking. It was found on an abandoned planet by Earth's first alien allies. What humanity finally did with it was turn it into a REALLY cool warp drive.

Eyes??? Try scissors and track shoes.

cthia wrote:

doug941 wrote:I'm kinda surprised nobody remembered John Ringo's "Little Black Box" from "Into the Looking Glass." It has a small problem with electricity, ANY electricity. Hooking it to a single double A battery resulted in a 10 mile wide crater. Hooking it to 3 phase current resulted in the following exchange:
"Holy Toledo," Miller said, wonderingly. He hit the gas jets on his EVA pack and turned around. Sure enough, the gate was floating in space. "Didn't we just put this thing down on a planet yesterday?"
"That's not the scary part," Bill said, spinning around. "Didn't there used to be a sun?"

So, even a small amount of energy - let's say millijoules, the amount of energy involved in a static discharge - should be more than enough to take out a building?

"Don't touch that!"

"Where's our house?"

I sure hope that darn thing's insulated, but of course it is if the inventor is smart. But then, how can an inventor be smart, who would build something like that!? It's a wonder man hasn't already built something that will put his eye out.

doug941 wrote:In that book, nobody knows exactly what the inventor was thinking. It was found on an abandoned planet by Earth's first alien allies. What humanity finally did with it was turn it into a REALLY cool warp drive.

Eyes??? Try scissors and track shoes.

Okay okay, point taken. Though I was being facetious because if mothers are to be believed, the Red Ryder BB gun was created solely for the purpose of blindness.

In one of my old neighborhoods, one of the kids severely damaged the retina of another kid on the playground by shining a small laser into his eyes for a prolonged period of time.

I know what the inventor was thinking. He was related to Jack the Ripper. Instead of ripping up bodies, he rips up planets. Advanced technology gives psychotic killers sharper scalpels in which to cut up prey.

Also, there's a planet-killer in James P. Hogan's Inherit the Stars series, an indirect planet-killer in his single book, Thrice Upon a Time, and a potential planet-killer in his Genesis Machine book.[/quote]
The idea is so common that it's close to impossible to list them all.

I even forgot about one of my own favorites... Galactus: Galactus was depicted as a god-like figure who feeds by draining living planets of their energy. Even though he's a god instead of a ship, I suppose he should qualify.

Also, the ships in Independence Day were to lay waste to Earth.[/quote]


***********

Much better to remember "Marvin the Martian" of Looney Toons

"Where was the KABOOM? There was supposed to be a KABOOM !!"

-- Stewart

I still wonder what would have happened to Earth had a cure not been found for the Final Wars - had Beowulf not been able to pull a rabbit out of its hat.

Would it have affected nearby systems as well?