munroburton wrote:JeffEngel wrote:I suppose if you are less concerned about deaths and more concerned about making it look like some sort of deliberate move on some SLN officer's part, the missiles would be fired with normal parameters - get near and fire off laserheads - and nominally at stations, bases and fortresses near Beowulf. That could account for 10m casualties and not far more - there are almost certainly going to be some laserheads that discharge into the atmosphere or surface without those being the actual target. (And the debris from the orbital targets will still be going places, sometimes down.) The BSDF may not be in the best position to stop those missiles either, if it is going out to meet the hundreds of SLN "observer" wallers, leaving just close-in defenses to fend off a surprise attack.
That kind of attack could look like "just" an attack on Beowulf's orbital infrastructure and bases/fortresses, the sort of thing that's not an EE violation but too close for comfort for responsible navies. It could smear the SLN's reputation (even with itself; they're not monsters) without sending up red flags about nanotech mind control for everyone.
It would take someone with a known, prepared simple combination of movements to execute, like Daniels and the use-or-lose missile pod flush. I wouldn't think that an ops or tactical officer would be ready with such a combination for an attack on Beowulf or the orbital targets though. It would more likely take creative reprogramming on the missile or tactical computer end, possibly triggered by some human input that may itself have some nanotech influence.
Well, if the GA has stealthed LACs in position to intercept a missile storm directed at Beowulf, they could clear quite a few of the potential leakers.
Could be, and if. Same would go for cruisers/destroyers laying around with impellers barely on. There may be questions about getting them into that position and keeping them there without being in the wrong position or leaving the impression afterward that they were leaning on Beowulf.
There's no guarantee any of the missiles will hit(or miss) densely inhabited locations. That part will be randomised, like the debris during the Yawata Strike.
If it's meant as a plausible smear by the Alignment of the SLN, plus optional Beowulf deaths, there's no guarantee needed. Just that kind of attack showing a reckless disregard for life by the SLN would be exactly the point; the deaths are a nice extra from their POV. We know RFC is planning on some 10 million dead there; how, we do not know, and there's no guarantee that they're intended by anyone in-universe either.
Given how jittery most officers seem to get when missiles are aimed anywhere close to a planet(even and especially one that isn't their own), I think it's frightengly easy to make missiles go for a planet strike. There isn't a hardwired inhibiton(because then enemy ECM starts making themselves look like planets) and even if there is, it wouldn't prevent a kinetic impact.
If the missiles are meant to drop the laserheads and detonate at a stand-off range against their target, they're not slamming into the planet even if the planet has been picked as their target. They're pumping lasers into it - fortunately, since the missile really
could slam into a planet and would do so much more in that case. Kinetic impacts from a missile against a planet are going to be indirect ones, from debris, or much worse than 10 million dead.
Also, the jitters are from the threat of the SLN and from not being sociopaths or fanatics contemplating millions dead outside the customs of war. The former motivation wouldn't be a problem for the SLN, which may make an Alignment-caused "oops" there something people could believe: they "only" have to think that the SLN does have sociopathic tac officers or reckless ones.
