I guess I'll take this opportunity to answer the nuke thing.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Triple_R
Given the scale of the threat, I myself have wondered why nukes aren't being used. I have a few ideas for why they're not being used:
1. They were never invented in this reality. This show does have an AU Earth history, after all. While it's much more advanced than real world Earth in some ways, maybe it's actually less advanced in some others.
2. There seems to be more unity amongst the nations of the Earth in this show. So maybe nobody wants to irradiate the backyard of one of his friend's, even if that would put a serious hurt on the BETA.
3. Maybe the BETA are immune to nuclear radiation. It's like that old joke - If there's a worldwide nuclear war, the only life left surviving will be the cockroaches.  |
1. They did invent nukes in WWII just like in our reality, though Japan surrendered unconditionally without needing to get nuked so Berlin got the atomic bomb instead. However in the early days of the war, the Soviets and Chinese didn't see the need to deploy them because at the time they were capable of holding their own in a purely conventional war, thanks to their complete air superiority and thus ability to call in airstrikes, chopper support, supply airdrops and so on. Then about nineteen days after the initial landing, the BETA first started deploying the Laser class, acting as a complete air defense system denying humanity access to air superiority and hence forcing them to fight a purely ground-based war, in which the BETA had the advantage with their overwhelming numbers. At this point, attempts to fire nukes resulted in the nukes getting lasered without fail, sort of like what Reagan wanted to achieve with the Strategic Defense Initiative in real life.
2. The United States learned from the mistakes that the Soviets and Chinese made, and when another BETA Hive landing unit arrived from the Moon they promptly hit it with a bunch of ICBMs before it had a chance to start deploying any BETA units in substantial quantities, let alone any Lasers, thus turning half of Canada into an irradiated wasteland in order to save the rest of Canada and the Americas from a BETA incursion from the north. Though the nations of the world ostensibly cooperate against the BETA, there's still an unhealthy dose of the typical human infighting, intolerance of differing political ideologies, attempted power grabs and so on under the surface that can flare up from time to time. For a non-spoileriffic example, the United States and USSR still have their nuclear arsenals pointed at each other, ready to turn each other into a smoking wasteland, with the US being in full 1950s red scare paranoia willing to quietly interfere with other nations' domestic affairs to safeguard the homeland mode.
3. The BETA are pretty much immune to radiation, though the heat and shockwave of nuclear explosions will kill them just fine. The problem then lies in delivery of the nuke that doesn't result in it getting lasered. The US develops xenotech-powered gravity-warping G-bombs that can't be touched by lasers thanks to gravity warp fields, but these cause permanent distortions in the Earth's gravitational field when they go off, so are kind of undesirable and were only ever deployed twice as of 2001 (the year Muv-Luv Unlimited/Alternative and Total Eclipse main plot starts).
TSFs sent on Hive infiltration missions are all equipped with an S-11, a bomb with yield equivalent to an average tactical nuke, which can be deployed normally (intended to be used to destroy the Reactor at the deepest part of the Hive, rendering the Hive incapable of maintaining a BETA population) or used as a suicide device if need be.