Re: [GZG] Invading Mars (was FTverse colinies)

G'day,

Ok leaving myself open to much snickering/flaming etc, the following
answers come from the fact I'm basing them on my GZGverse fictional
setting. Be as cruel as you have to to bring me back to plausibility...
(yes I know that means I just asked for it...)

> Question 1:  Has Mars been terraformed enough that humans can survive
> outside of a domed or underground city for more than a few minutes
> with minimal equipment?

Yes. Kinda. Before the attack started the equipment needs for when on
the surface of Mars was about the same as being on a polar or high
altitude expedition. The penetrating kinetic hits from the initial
strikes from orbit throw up clouds of dust, and trigger storms that
reverse decades of terraforming advances. Re-breathers and gills become
essential and temperatures drop (a multi-year chill begins).

> Question 2: Has Mars been terraformed enough that Kra'Vak can survive
> outside of a domed or underground city for more than a few minutes
> with minimal equipment?

Yes. They seem more able to cope than humans. They seem to have targeted
human infrastructure and taken it over (with modification), but whether
that's for convenience or need is anyone's guess (from a human
viewpoint).

> Question 3: What is the objective of the Kra'Vak in 'taking' Mars?

Without giving away too many other plot ides its basically religious. 

> Question 4 and 4b: What is the human settlement pattern and population
> distribution like?  How are far-flung colonies connected (both
> physical transportation and information flow)?

Most human settlements on Mars are concentrated (but not exclusively so)
to settlements that are sprinkled across the surface of the southern
half of the planet. There are transport links between the settlements
(think the pattern of settlements seen in places like Australia, Canada,
Africa, western US).

> Question 5a and following: What, if any, logistical resources are
> available for the Kra'Vak to take over and consume to support their
> invasion forces, or are they going to have to import every liter of
> water they drink? 

If they take over Human infrastructure it can (with some modification)
be directly usable by the Kra'Vak.

> What do Kra'Vak eat, and can they survive on
> requisitioned human food? 

I'd say no they can't directly use all/majority of human foods, but
their food items aren't impossible to grow on Mars.

> Do they consider human combat casualties field rations?

No. Though you still don't want to see what they do to the casualties...

> If I only want to take the orbital elevator and the surrounding area
> in a 100km radius, do I need to either hold or destroy a major urban
> area with 1 million inhabitants and 4 million in surrounding area, or
> do I just need to take a town with a population of 5,000, and blow the
> monorail lines that connect them to the rest of the planet? 

More like the former than the later.

> If I shoot down the commo satellites, drop a nuke on every major
spaceport,
> and take what territory I actually care about holding, is it going to
> take the relief force from the biggest mining colony six months to get
> there?  Imagine if the orbital elevator was in Kenya, and the nearest
> major city was in Cairo, how long would it take to march a mliitary
> unit across howling wilderness?  Planets are vast, and I think a lot
> of the discussions have been ignoring that single significant factor.

Depends on how complete their control of the atmosphere is. If they
don't control all the airspace then support can arrive in hours, if its
by land then you're looking at days to weeks+ scale depending on area
the Kra'Vak clear/hold/level in the first place.

> Personally, if I were an invading species with no moral or ethical
> objection to exterminating my competitor species en masse, a colony
> with domed cities would have a non-persistent neurotoxin dumped into
> the air processing system to forestall guerilla warfare, for those
> installations I felt I needed to take intact and not just drop a Mach
> 20 crowbar on it from orbit, cracking the shell and turning all the
> inhabitants inside out.

I didn't have so much of the neurotoxin (didn't seem to fit with the
Kra'Vak described in Jon's text), but did have them using kinetic
penetrators to help clear the way for their planetfall.

> Guerilla war only matters if your opponent has a reason to keep the
> civilian populace alive and sufficient incentive in the form of
> domestic political pressure to actually bother differentiating between
> guerillas and noncombatants.	Otherwise, it's Central Asian Muslims
> vs. Ghengis Khan, and that did NOT work out well for the Muslims.
> Personally, I don't think it will work a damn on aliens because they
> simply don't have an objection to eradicating entire populations of
> humans if it's more convenient that way.

So for what its worth I had the Kra'Vak clear out the peninsular they
landed on (secure roughly 600x400 km2 area in about a week though take
another 2 to clear out the last major pockets). After that, we'll we see
how that goes once we've let this discussion run its course ;)

Cheers

Beth

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