Could reanimated skeletons ever really defeat the military?

[TithonusSyndrome]

I've never been a huge fan of zombies, and in part it might be that I've always been a bit more inclined towards skellies. They seldom, if ever, have their own devoted films or other media devoted to them causing havoc - Army of Darkness is about as close as it gets - and are usually more in supporting roles of other, larger fantasy settings, though. They don't have an agreed corpus of works outlining their limits and rules that folks are bound to automatically think of if I simply ask this question, so a few ground rules might help outline the scenario here:

- on this last Halloween, at midnight in each respective time zone, all the complete skeletons of human corpses are suddenly reanimated by nonspecific sorcery that cannot be reversed regardless of their specific circumstances or storage. This includes skeletons inside undecomposed corpses, who wriggle and fight their way out of the old meatbag they're in before causing havoc.

- None of the skeletons retain memories or traits of the person they were before they perished. They all have a general personality of crude, impish and violent tendencies that, while allowing for enough variation within them for specific skeletons to achieve natural stations of authority over others, are roughly comparable to the Martians from "Mars Attacks" - somewhat reckless, keen on human suffering and the eventual extinction of humanity, and in general a bit immature. Communicating with them is possible but futile, as they will only ever use the opportunity to insult humans, elicit pleas for their lives before killing them, or waste their time to prepare ambushes.

- They are mostly indifferent but occasionally cruel to other non-human life, but seem to have an aesthetic preference for the presence of black cats around their places of congregation.

- Their sense of tactics and combat is rough but athletic, being able to leap and run on general better than the average human, and might be best compared to third world militias and guerrilla groups - a basic understanding of cover, flanking and so on. They have no specific training or out-of-the-box special knowledge of how to use or maintain firearms, but they do know what they are and their preoccupation with human extinction means they will make immediate and organized efforts to acquire them and any other weapon they can spot, and can learn better tactics if instructed by a skeleton in charge of their irregular unit.

-Hand to hand they are surprisingly strong, but not overwhelmingly so, and in unarmed combat with an unarmored human will most likely win due to not feeling pain from blows and being able to gouge flesh and eyes with their bare skeletal fingers, which many of them go so far as to sharpen.

- The corpses of freshly killed humans can be animated as new skeletons if they are buried in time for the next full moon, or if flayed of flesh and a small group of skeletons perform rites over it for an hour, at any time. This is also true of skeletal remains pieced back together from incomplete skeletons of different people.

- There is no special way to stop a skeleton; basically, when their torso has no more limbs or head attached to it, the animating sorcery leaves the bones. A beheaded skeleton will carry on blindly swinging and/or firing, possibly even endangering unaware fellow skeletons, and even a ribcage with an arm still attached will crawl as best it can towards a human to maim and kill it. Even a torso with a head will remain animated, albeit immobile. This means sniping at skeletons is especially ineffective, unless possibly they can shoot the very base of the spine and turn it into a crawler.

- Finally, as unlikely as it may be to occur, if they can clearly hear ragtime jazz being played by a living person on a piano (not a recording) they will stop whatever they are doing and leap up and dance wildly. Assuming anyone can discover this, it would be tremendously effective in stopping them.

So, can the skellies do what the zombies can't?

[Joun_Lord]

Whats the durability of the skeletons? Are they magically more durable then normal? Because generally a skeleton without all the meat bits is pretty fragile. They will fall apart very easily and the bones when dried out in incredibly brittle. Plus they are going to be extremely lightweight to the point any human can pick up one and dash them on the ground for an easy win.

Zombies already should be a pushover with their rotted muscles and bodies literally falling apart from decay but skeletons its even easier to fight. Probably the most dangerous should be fresh skeletons that still have alot of ligament and junk intact so they don't fall apart so easily and bones aren't dried out and easily broken but even then they shouldn't pose too much of a threat.

[TithonusSyndrome]

Yeah, probably a bit more durable but not incredibly so. Comparable to the durability of "Army of Darkness" skellies, in that regard; not able to survive a serious blow from a large bludgeoning weapon, but not crumbling apart no matter the age and able to survive being hit with a human's bare hands as easily as any human can.

[madd0ct0r]

at midnight in each respective time zone. That means USA gets more much more warning compared to Austrailia. I can totally see drunk possee's heading down to the graveyard with a brace of shotguns. It's not like the skeletons that are unearthing themselves will be able to dodge.

lessee - a skeleton takes 8-12 years to decompose, so let's only count that last ten years on average
Death Rate in USA has hovered around 8.4/1000 pop for the last decade.
popualtion of USA is 319 million.

319mill/1000*8.4*10 years = 26.796 million skeletons, or one per 11 people, spread out following population density of the living.

[LaCroix]

Since cremation is much more popular today than in ye olde days, there should be even less of a problem...

Cremation by countries

[biostem]

Well, do the skeletons have some way of rapidly increasing their numbers? And are we assuming that these are unarmed skeletons? In one of the Jason & the Argonauts movies, the skeletons were using melee weapons and shields, and used at least a modicum of strategy when fighting... are these magically animated, semi-intelligent skeletons?

[TithonusSyndrome]

Well, do the skeletons have some way of rapidly increasing their numbers?

Burying corpses in shallow graves in time for a full moon will automatically reanimate the skeleton of the corpse. An hourlong ritual carried out by a small group of skellies can animate a new skeleton as well. That's not "fast", but they don't place themselves in harm's way like zombies do either due to their understanding of cover and tactics, so they won't suffer the same attrition.

And are we assuming that these are unarmed skeletons?

Initially, but they will seek out and find weapons with coordinated, strategic determination, including grabbing any available bludgeoning or hacking implement until they can get a gun.

In one of the Jason & the Argonauts movies, the skeletons were using melee weapons and shields, and used at least a modicum of strategy when fighting... are these magically animated, semi-intelligent skeletons?

Yes, they are "intelligent" to the same extent that a reckless young adult male would be; not a dumb animal, but not very disciplined either unless strictly trained by more martially gifted skeletons. This means that early on, a lot of the skeletons will be somewhat crazed and haphazard in their methods, but will become somewhat more skilled and soldier-like in time.

As far as everyone dismissing skeletons as a threat in the US go, what about the third world? Mortality rates are higher, armies are less organized, and eventually the skeletons will figure out that they can wound the first world by making third world resources practically inaccessible through scorched earth warfare. Entire mass graves would become reanimated in a single go on the first night, and the civilians they'd massacre would become new soldiers for the second moon without much difficulty. They don't need to eat, they don't need to sleep, and while immature and reckless, they aren't completely ignorant of the value of biding their time and picking their battles whilst they hide in the bush.

[biostem]

OK, so if the skeletons are smart, they'd go to a graveyard and increase their numbers first, perhaps also obtaining some melee weapons until they can get a hold of some firearms. Further, if they have any sense of stealth/infiltration, they'd cover themselves to hide what they really are, and perhaps even don armor if possible. If they can take such measures to a sufficient degree, and fully arm themselves, then they could be a tenable threat - they wouldn't need to eat or rest, wouldn't be susceptible to disease, and assuming they are seeing through magical means, they may even be able to see in total darkness. Still, shotguns with buckshot to slugs, or higher caliber rifles/pistols should be able to shatter their bones. Once the national guard or swat teams get engaged, they will order people to uncover their heads/faces, so as to be able to tell skeletons apart from live humans.

[TithonusSyndrome]

They wouldn't be that clever at first, it would take them a while to figure out to be more subtle and I largely agree that they wouldn't have much initial success in the US or most other modern countries. I don't agree that Bubba and co. would be able to ambush them on the first night, if only because Bubba and co. don't always take international news stories very seriously, so I do think they would be able to escape their graves mostly unmolested and unimpeded.

For the most part, I think their best shot at success is to attack third and second world resources and cripple the world economy, while lingering skeletons in the first world carry out terror attacks.

[biostem]

Can they raise animal skeletons? While I wouldn't expect such creatures to be as smart as human skeletons, imagine what they could do if they came upon a slaughterhouse...

[TithonusSyndrome]

I guess we can say that they can raise them with the hourlong ritual, but they won't raise if buried in time for the moon. I guess this would be handy for steeds here and there.

[biostem]

I guess we can say that they can raise them with the hourlong ritual, but they won't raise if buried in time for the moon. I guess this would be handy for steeds here and there.

Or as cannon fodder/as a distraction.

[Zixinus]

They are going to be much more threatening than zombies because they will be harder to hit. That and intelligence. Several bullets may hit dead-on and only chip some non-essential bones off (you did not mention how the skeletons stand: would braking the spine make them unable to stand or would it just slow them down or otherwise inconvenience them?). This means that as hands-on weapon, we are entering the use of lots and lots of explosives.

This is pretty much apocalypse material right here, but one potentially survivable for some nations.

[Patroklos]

Given most intact skeletons are going to be buried six feet under the ground and inside a coffin and we haven't given them super human strength most of them will stay exactly where they are and remain harmless.

So that leaves us the transient skeletons in morgues and funeral homes and any hastily disposed of bodies in shallow or otherwise non normal graves.

I really can't see this being a problem with such low numbers. The only advantage over zombies I can see here from a physical standpoint is they won't freeze sold in the winter. Well, that and the animals and insects will largely leave them alone.

[Esquire]

They have a massive advantage in their intelligence and abilty to use tools and learn... over zombies. Against humans, who already have learned how modern warfare works and who already have tools, they're going to be smashed to bits anywhere with a competent central government. Which probably leaves much of Africa and the Middle East in serious trouble, mind.

[biostem]

They have a massive advantage in their intelligence and abilty to use tools and learn... over zombies. Against humans, who already have learned how modern warfare works and who already have tools, they're going to be smashed to bits anywhere with a competent central government. Which probably leaves much of Africa and the Middle East in serious trouble, mind.

It's a trade-off - they are more intelligent and can use weapons/some tactics, but their method of increasing their numbers is very specific and time consuming. You also wouldn't have the psychological effect of teammates possibly coming back if they get bitten or die in combat - even if they did, they'd be a skeleton and unrecognizable as their former self.

[Block]

They'd basically just get shaken to pieces by sustained artillery and bombing no?

[Batman]

They'd basically just get shaken to pieces by sustained artillery and bombing no?

Out in the open, almost certainly. But what about scenarios like urban combat where you can't just HE them out of existence for fear of civilian casualties?
Even if bullets can kill them (heh) they're much smaller targets than human infantry due to there being a lot less of a body, they're a lot less vulnerable because they don't have any vital organs to hit, any situation where you can't use explosives with abandon is going to seriously suck.

[Starglider]

Shotguns should still be quite effective. A few buck pellet strikes would shatter them.