The Centauri invade modern-day Earth

[BL]Phalanx · Post by **[BL]Phalanx** » 2003-04-21 03:04am

This is the Centauri Republic of Babylon 5. This time, instead of meeting humanity a 150 years from now, they arrive today, with their imperialist zeal at its height and the Centauri Republic expanding in all directions. Rather than the humanity that had solid spaceflight within the solar system, they meet a less technologically-advanced Earth. They see greater advantage in raw material and labor-power than in a more fair relationship, and decide to invade.

What happens?

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2003-04-21 03:08am

They threaten orbital bombardment, against which we have no credible response. We are forced to surrender. Within 10 years, there are McDonald's on Centauri Prime and Emperor Cartagia is drinking Coca-Cola and watching West Coast porn.

[BL]Phalanx · Post by **[BL]Phalanx** » 2003-04-21 03:28am

Oops, I meant for no orbital bombardment. Forgot to put that in. That's what I meant by "invade", they're gonna try to take it on the ground, rather than just flatten us from orbit.

Enforcer Talen · Post by **Enforcer Talen** » 2003-04-21 03:32am

whats their average population, and how many are they willing to lose? earth can be a graveyard, at times.

neoolong · Post by **neoolong** » 2003-04-21 03:50am

Don't they usually just attack. Pretend it was someone else and pretend to be our friends right before they take us over with all their people subtlely in place? Or am I remembering the books wrong?

The Nomad · Post by **The Nomad** » 2003-04-21 03:52am

Open channels. Transmit Janeway porn. Take possession of the vessels.

Post by **Vympel** » 2003-04-21 03:55am

Don't the Centauri use swords in combat?

Jason von Evil · Post by **Jason von Evil** » 2003-04-21 03:55am

neoolong wrote:Don't they usually just attack. Pretend it was someone else and pretend to be our friends right before they take us over with all their people subtlely in place? Or am I remembering the books wrong?

Figured that too, since they did that to the Narns.

SyntaxVorlon · Post by **SyntaxVorlon** » 2003-04-21 07:19am

Darth Wong wrote:They threaten orbital bombardment, against which we have no credible response. We are forced to surrender. Within 10 years, there are McDonald's on Centauri Prime and Emperor Cartagia is drinking Coca-Cola and watching West Coast porn.

McDonalds will be selling spoo, coke will be an 80-proof centauri drink and the pr0n will be live action tenticle monster hentai.

Stormbringer · Post by **Stormbringer** » 2003-04-21 07:43am

Vympel wrote:Don't the Centauri use swords in combat?

No. They use combined arms same as everyone else.

Crown · Post by **Crown** » 2003-04-21 07:45am

Vympel wrote:Don't the Centauri use swords in combat?

A HELL NO to that! I think you are getting that from the episode where Londo and another Centauri noble duel for some kind of statues-political face saving thing. But the Centauri troops (whom we hardely ever see, if at all), use thier versions of PPG's.

Post by **Vympel** » 2003-04-21 07:53am

Crown wrote:
A HELL NO to that! I think you are getting that from the episode where Londo and another Centauri noble duel for some kind of statues-political face saving thing. But the Centauri troops (whom we hardely ever see, if at all), use thier versions of PPG's.

Yeah, that episode was what planted that in my head- specifically where Londo's friend said that it was the sword he had used when he was the hero of such and such or something.

I need to get more Bab 5. ....

[BL]Phalanx · Post by **[BL]Phalanx** » 2003-04-21 04:54pm

Doesn't anyone around here have some B5Wars material on the ground forces?

Ted C · Post by **Ted C** » 2003-04-21 05:25pm

[BL]Phalanx wrote:Oops, I meant for no orbital bombardment. Forgot to put that in. That's what I meant by "invade", they're gonna try to take it on the ground, rather than just flatten us from orbit.

Why would they not utilize orbital bombardment? It's the single most effective advantage they've got. To deny them that option is to throw any semblance of realistic strategy out the window. We've seen that orbital bombardment doesn't have to wipe out a city with every shot, so there's no reason to think they couldn't attack strategic targets with pinpoint strikes.

They would eventually need to put down an occupation force of some sort, and they would probably be able to dominate Earth for decades. We can guess, though, that Earth, like Narn, would eventually be able to make them leave.

HemlockGrey · Post by **HemlockGrey** » 2003-04-21 05:27pm

Well, wasn't it proven that a Minbari cruiser could only take 2 MT? The Centuari aren't as powerful as the Minbari; the nuclear arsenals of the world couldn't be good for them.

Ted C · Post by **Ted C** » 2003-04-21 05:29pm

HemlockGrey wrote:Well, wasn't it proven that a Minbari cruiser could only take 2 MT? The Centuari aren't as powerful as the Minbari; the nuclear arsenals of the world couldn't be good for them.

We don't have the ability to effectively target ships in orbit, and the Centauri have demonstrated the ability to shoot down incoming missiles without difficulty.

[BL]Phalanx · Post by **[BL]Phalanx** » 2003-04-21 06:01pm

Ted C wrote: Why would they not utilize orbital bombardment? It's the single most effective advantage they've got. To deny them that option is to throw any semblance of realistic strategy out the window. We've seen that orbital bombardment doesn't have to wipe out a city with every shot, so there's no reason to think they couldn't attack strategic targets with pinpoint strikes.

They would eventually need to put down an occupation force of some sort, and they would probably be able to dominate Earth for decades. We can guess, though, that Earth, like Narn, would eventually be able to make them leave.

Now they could hit key areas as a demonstration, and hope it intimidates us enough, but let's assume that humanity is stubborn enough to continue to resist, and political factors prevent the Centauri from simply flattening the whole place the way political factors prevented the United States from simply flattening Vietnam. Can't we just assume that the Centauri are eager to test out their ground forces, for the sake of having a debate on the terms I wanted?

With the Narns, they were able to fool the Narns because at the time the Narns had no space-faring capability and I doubt they had very advanced astronomy (beyond what they needed to plan agriculture).

HemlockGrey · Post by **HemlockGrey** » 2003-04-21 06:26pm

Well, we could at least wait until most of their forces were on the ground before attacking. I don't think we could win, but we could probably wipe out their first occupation force, before being bombarded into submission.

Enforcer Talen · Post by **Enforcer Talen** » 2003-04-21 09:31pm

how many missiles can they stop? usa and russia can launch a few ten thousand. . .

[BL]Phalanx · Post by **[BL]Phalanx** » 2003-04-21 09:48pm

Enforcer Talen wrote:how many missiles can they stop? usa and russia can launch a few ten thousand. . .

It'd be a better idea to use those on the ground if possible. It only takes a few seconds for a ship to engage its jump drive and enter hyperspace, so even if the Centauri didn't have the point defense or delta-v to evade, they'd still get away.

Howedar · Post by **Howedar** » 2003-04-22 12:51am

Enforcer Talen wrote:how many missiles can they stop? usa and russia can launch a few ten thousand. . .

Not into orbit.

Enforcer Talen · Post by **Enforcer Talen** » 2003-04-22 04:17am

damn. I guess all those killer comet movies were wrong.

Ted C · Post by **Ted C** » 2003-04-22 10:28am

Enforcer Talen wrote:how many missiles can they stop? usa and russia can launch a few ten thousand. . .

I reiterate: we do not have any missiles designed to attack targets in space.

Even if we did, it would be a simple matter for them to simply move their ships away. I rather doubt our missiles, using chemical fuel and starting from the ground, could catch any Centauri ship using fusion-powered engines that's already in orbit.

With modern technology, we could not touch Centauri warships, so let's just drop that line of thinking, eh?

Ted C · Post by **Ted C** » 2003-04-22 10:35am

[BL]Phalanx wrote: Now they could hit key areas as a demonstration, and hope it intimidates us enough, but let's assume that humanity is stubborn enough to continue to resist, and political factors prevent the Centauri from simply flattening the whole place the way political factors prevented the United States from simply flattening Vietnam. Can't we just assume that the Centauri are eager to test out their ground forces, for the sake of having a debate on the terms I wanted?

Well, we know the Centauri have rapid-fire energy weapons. We can guess that the concepts of artillery and armor aren't completely foreign to them. Unfortunately, we don't know exactly what equipment they have in these areas.

We do know that their air support would be massive, though. It would be extremely difficult to move a conventional army against any Centauri ground force, since I think it's safe to assume their starships would be able to observe any troop movements, and they would just start bombarding our army from orbit. Guerilla warfare would be our only viable option.

[BL]Phalanx wrote: With the Narns, they were able to fool the Narns because at the time the Narns had no space-faring capability and I doubt they had very advanced astronomy (beyond what they needed to plan agriculture).

We don't have any significant space-faring capability, at least not compared to a civilization capable of waging war in space and dominating planets in distant solar systems. We're only marginally better off now than the Narn might have been when the Centauri invaded them.

Ted C · Post by **Ted C** » 2003-04-22 01:48pm

Another major Centauri advantage... they've demonstrated their willingness to use weapons of mass destruction (mass drivers on Narn), so the should have no compunctions about using biological weapons against humans. They shouldn't have much trouble coming up with a human-specific biological agent, and the threat of such a weapon would be an excellent means of forcing capitulation.