Snarc Sabotage

I was re-reading the books, and realized something.

If the Snarcs could produce an incendiary charge (Which Merlin says he's 'considered but rejected' as a means of assassination), then I wonder why not use them as active saboteurs?

The fact that they have an incendiary function means that they can ignite black powder. This in turn means that they could blow up Mother Church's ships, in or out of battle, by sabotaging their powder stores. Take out a flagship or the leader of a column/squadron with careful sabotage and you can cripple a navy the way the scout-snipers crippled Gahrvai's army during the Corisande campaign.

If you wanted to get really mean, they could reproduce the Hairatha Mill's sabotage by triggering powder explosions there. Or they could set off some fires in specific dockside warehouses which happen to be storing critical supplies. Set off a grass fire in some of the temple lands that would hopefully spread and cause some real damage. Things that couldn't be traced back to Charis at all, that seem natural and caused by bad luck.

Then, too, they could probably find some store of cloth in a ship and light it on fire. Mother Church doesn't have ironclads (yet), right? A fire or two is probably expected. During a naval battle it's natural, nobody would suspect anything amiss and if nothing else it'd be a distraction during critical moments during battle.

I hope Merlin starts being a little more ruthless about using his high-tech arsenal against his enemies. There's so many ways a tiny ignition charge could be used to drastic, dramatic effect after all!

This comes up often enough that we have a FAQ post about it. Please see "Why doesn't Merlin use SNARCs to sabotage the Church's war efforts?"

http://www.davidweber.net/faqs/index/series:6

There's actually a perfect opportunity for this at the end of the last book: blowing up the NoG ship after removing Thirsk's family from it.

Instead, Merlin chooses to throw a "primitive" (as in approx late 20th/early 21st century tech) laser guided bomb at it.

This suggests to me that there are unspecified limitations to using SNARCs. And given the circumstances, I can only really think of two reasons:

1) SNARCs are sufficiently valuable that Merlin doesn't want to waste them blowing up ships. In terms of resources, a primitive 2000 lb laser guided bomb is CHEAPER and more expendable to Merlin than a tiny advanced Fed-tech SNARC.

2) SNARC explosives have a distinctive signature that would stand out to Fed tech sensors while mere chemical explosives don't. Sure, the target was far away from any known enemy sensor and any exploding SNARC was unlikely to be picked up, but why take the chance?

As for why Merlin doesn't use sabotage in general more routinely, remember that his ultimate objective is to get all of Safehold innovating, even (especially!) the Church side. Chronic sabotage by "supernatural forces" is not going to help and may even hinder this mission, discouraging exactly the sort of innovation that Merlin wants to foster.

evilauthor wrote:There's actually a perfect opportunity for this at the end of the last book: blowing up the NoG ship after removing Thirsk's family from it.

Instead, Merlin chooses to throw a "primitive" (as in approx late 20th/early 21st century tech) laser guided bomb at it.

This suggests to me that there are unspecified limitations to using SNARCs. And given the circumstances, I can only really think of two reasons:

1) SNARCs are sufficiently valuable that Merlin doesn't want to waste them blowing up ships. In terms of resources, a primitive 2000 lb laser guided bomb is CHEAPER and more expendable to Merlin than a tiny advanced Fed-tech SNARC.

2) SNARC explosives have a distinctive signature that would stand out to Fed tech sensors while mere chemical explosives don't. Sure, the target was far away from any known enemy sensor and any exploding SNARC was unlikely to be picked up, but why take the chance?

As for why Merlin doesn't use sabotage in general more routinely, remember that his ultimate objective is to get all of Safehold innovating, even (especially!) the Church side. Chronic sabotage by "supernatural forces" is not going to help and may even hinder this mission, discouraging exactly the sort of innovation that Merlin wants to foster.

You might also consider that SNARC's may be built with some rare or hard to manufacture substance. Remember all the discussions in the books about building a second PICA, which IIRC would deplete certain rare substances below certain levels.

Duckk is absolutely right. This has come up a number of times (and I've been part of those threads too).

But my issue in this case is that you need to differentiate between a SNARC and a remote (which is controlled either by Owl through a SNARC or by the SNARC itself).

A SNARC is IIRC about a meter tall. The associated remotes are almost microscopic. The remotes CAN be commanded to self-detonate.

And let's not forget that an accidental friction sparc in a powder transport caused the inquisition to obliterate a nearby town for sabotage.

In the last books Merlin intentionally only used advanced tech if it could either be done undetected and if he can lead any suspicions away from nearby innocents.

saber964 wrote:You might also consider that SNARC's may be built with some rare or hard to manufacture substance. Remember all the discussions in the books about building a second PICA, which IIRC would deplete certain rare substances below certain levels.

That's covered under number one. Rare, hard to get/manufacture materials are effectively "expensive" when your "economy" just consists of nanotech replicators that are only restricted in what they can build by available raw materials. The harder the material in question is to get, the more valuable it becomes and the more "expensive" anything built with it is.

A late 20th/early 21st century laser guided bomb? Literally dirt cheap to such a system because dirt contains most of the minerals needed to build it and what it doesn't contain is almost as easily acquired.