A space faring species would have split the atom way long before they left their solar system so how come the Xindi had such trouble killing the human race? Surely all they had to do was lob a few nukes and the entire planet would have become uninhabitable. Even a kinetic weapon would have done the job.
Posted Jan 14, 2020, 5:32 AM UTC
Because nukes wouldn’t necessarily wipe out the entire human race, and have to be delivered via missiles, which Earth presumably has defenses against.
nukes would send us back to the stone age and with all the easily mined metals already mined we would never be able to progress as far as we have.
As I said, nukes have to be delivered via missiles, which Earth likely has defenses against. You’re applying 21st century logic to a 22nd century situation.
earth has no defense against anything. they were caught with their pants down.
Against a probe firing a beam from orbit? No. Against missiles? Of course. We’re not far from technology like that in our time, of course they have defense against missiles.
I think that conventional planetary bombardment isn't very effective in the future when attacking on earth.
We know for example that when the Breen broke through Earth's defense lines, they only were able to inflict minor damage on a few buildings and structures. Yes, only a few fighters made it through--but keep in mind that a single photon torpedo could easily level an unshielded city.
I think that Earth and other planets like it have sophisticated defense networks that work on many levels. I'd speculate that these defenses include:
phased weapons and/or transporters capable of intercepting any kind of projectile strike (so no hitting them with a missile or a torpedo--you've got to hit them with some kind of energy weapon)
shields around key locations and facilities
orbital defense stations
The Xindi strategy seems focused on getting in with a single powerful ship and then firing at quite a distance from Earth with a beam strong enough to get through any shielding. I don't think that's an accident.
I like the idea of defensive transporters. I don't think we've ever seen anything in the show implying that's feasible, but it's a very cool idea and absolutely makes sense as a way to defend vital fixed points.
Antimatter would make a far more effective weapon. A gram releases the equivalent energy of an atomic bomb. Starships regularly carry several kilograms to use as fuel for the warp core. That also makes it easy to get large quantities without raising suspicions. It wouldn't take much to devastate a planetary surface. Antimatter weapons don't require much complexity other than the containment system, either. You just need to keep it stable until you reach the target and then let it loose.
how come the Xindi had such trouble killing the human race?
Because they sent their small test weapon to Earth. I mean really, it's that simple. They gave up their element of surprise. It notified the humans of the threat (they haven't even heard of this race) and they went out and stopped it. Had they just waited to complete their weapon earth would be destroyed.
And the Xindi even had people from the future advising them! Why would they suggest or be ok with a small attack on an enemy that doesn't even know there is a threat when you have a planet destroying weapon in the works?
The Sphere Builders probably assumed that the Vulcans would stop Earth from responding (which they almost did), and even if they didn't either the expanse or Xindi defenses would stop them long before they could do damage. The weapon was literally in the Sol system when it was destroyed, so they weren't that far off the mark. Even Archer's future patron tried to get him to stop going after the weapon.
We know from TOS and TNG that it's not that easy to divert stellar objects of the size of an asteroid, and nuclear weapons didn't help the Romulans destroying humans.
The real issue is that the xindi send out a proto type they knew wouldn't wipe everyone out completely just to test it.
That's one way to warn you greatest enemy about your intention.
But I guess ENT really wanted to have their own 9/11 to connect to the real life events at the time so that's why that is in there.
I agree, it was weird when the Xindi themselves started talking about how they were worried about being found out. Why do a weapons test on a inhabited planet, then?
Kinetic weapons at impulse speeds should do the trick. That first probe traveled quite slowly and wasn't immediately intercepted, so I don't know how they would've been able to stop a swarm of rocks traveling at say 7000 km per second.
Because Enterprise is a poorly written show built on a poor initial premise.
ah finally some truth!
Well, no. I mean the humans did that to themselves a century earlier and they turned out fine. Nuclear winter isn't really the literal cataclysm that it's sometimes made out to be; it can cause short-term extinction events and begin a collapse of human civilization, but not eradicate the human species or end all life on the planet. If by "a few" you mean a million or so, that might be different, but if you're going to go to the trouble of finding and enriching all that uranium and plutonium you might as well build a planet-killing laser sphere.