Jakub324 said:
Hal10k said:
Jakub324 said:
Hal10k said:
Jakub324 said:
The locals are being killed because the interplanetary authorities got fed up with the possibility of the Solats stirring another rebellion up, and as long as they were alive, the risk was there.
They're still there because their orders are simple: "Kill everyone. If just one Solat survives, the risk does."
The State doesn't want to control the planet, they just want every one of it's inhabitants dead so they no longer have to keep looking over their shoulders.
Besides, you'd think that a smart organization would realize that total genocide would inspire a bigger rebellion than a few people they could easily out-propoganda.
Also, why would you need an army to eradicate that planet's population in the first place? Just chuck a good-sized asteroid at a planet and your job is already done.
In order:
They can easily bring about a propoganda blackout, and anyone they can no longer feed lies has already be rebelled. This didn't stop them because they're paranoid.
They can't just level the place from orbit because , for reasons unknown to the Solats, they want the city in tact. It is, however, speculated to be that the world leader, and the acting overrall commander of the Solat Military know a lot about the workings of their post-revolution allies.
Okay, you're telling me that they're willing to wage a huge, expensive, inhumane, and ultimately pointless military campaign all for the purpose of silencing a few people who might make some other people who have already defected dislike them a little more? How on earth did anybody think that would be a good idea under any circumstances? How could you even be paranoid about that in the first place?
Also, there are plenty of ways to eliminate a population while leaving infrastructure intact. An engineered viral outbreak. If the society is dependent upon artificial crops & life support, sabatoge. If not, the aforementioned asteroid goes on the opposite side of the planet. You can look at all of the dinosaurs in Asia for evidence as to what happens when you're on the opposite side of the planet as a large asteroid impact. There's very little reason to bring an army in full force.
No... The State believes the Solat Military has agents on every world, spreading anti-state propaganda (they don't). They're paranoid because if worlds have already rebelled, why not more? How can they trust their soldiers? Their officers? What if even more of their military was to turn on them? No, better to eliminate one source of the problem.
As for why they haven't just levelled the place with nukes: they want what's left of the Solat senior command structure alive and interrogatable.
Worrying about potential espionage would be a good reason to eliminate the leaders of a planet, not commit genocide. Once you've overhrown all major government agencies, any propoganda machine that had been set up is now officially broken. There's no reason to kill everyone short of being cartoonishly evil.
Be honest, can you honestly imagine how the planning session for this would go?
"Gentlemen, some of our colonies have gone rogue. We have narrowed down the possible sources of corrupting influences to some people on this planet."
"Goodie. So what's the plan? Counter-espionage to eliminate their agents while avoiding an incident? Blockading their trade until they agree to turn over all pertinent information? Cranking up the ol' propoganda machine to drown out any more dissenters?"
"No, I'm going to try and kill an entire planet's population using basic land tactics instead."
"A grand idea! Next on the agenda: next weeks puppy-kicking competition. Have we agreed on the orphanage as the site of the first event? If so, I'll get some boys to burn it down right away."
Even if this were a sensible plan, remember what I said: Viral attacks. Sabotage. Indirect asteroid impact. Any of these could kill a population while leaving buildings intact.
