posted
I've been working again (finally) on my outline and stories for my own account of the Earth-Romulan War, based on the work that Masao wrote for the Starfleet Museum.
I had this idea that Galorndon Core would probably be one of the battlefields of the war, since we know for a fact that the system is only half a light-year from the Neutral Zone.
Based on what we saw of the planet in TNG's "The Enemy," can anyone think of a sequence of events in which a relatively habitable planet was transformed into a hellhole like Galorndon Core? The planet's atmosphere was certainly breathable, and there was plenty of running water (as Geordi found out). Would an extensive application of nuclear weapons possibly have caused that mess? Or maybe a use of the Romulan plasma cannon on a planetary target?
Basically, I'm thinking that Galorndon Core was one of the Earth colonies that got effectively wiped out during the early years of the war. I've always wondered how the place could be habitable (for short periods) yet be such a nasty place -- so I've surmised that it was actually the result of some cataclysm in the past.
Any ideas?
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posted
I can't remember exactly what the planet looked like but how about a kinetic strike? Loads of dust and crap spewed into the atmosphere would have totally screwed up the ecosystem, kinda like an asteroid strike.
So basically the Romulans come along on a hit and run raid or on a more extensive attack and pepper the planet with heavy mass objects (either purpose designed kinetic torpedoes or just rocks picked up from anywhere.)
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As I recall, the planet look like a sandy gravel pit. No vegitation. Near zero visibility. The surface (at least the part we saw) seemed to be sandy and rather wet rather than dusty and desert like.
quote:Originally posted by Wraith: I can't remember exactly what the planet looked like but how about a kinetic strike? Loads of dust and crap spewed into the atmosphere would have totally screwed up the ecosystem, kinda like an asteroid strike.
A kinetic strike wouldn't achieve the effects that we saw on Galorndon Core. All the lightning and electromagnetic storms? Not to mention that the temperature was comfortable -- somewhere in the 10-20�C range, probably.
quote:Originally posted by Aban Rune: As I recall, the planet look like a sandy gravel pit. No vegitation. Near zero visibility. The surface (at least the part we saw) seemed to be sandy and rather wet rather than dusty and desert like.
Yeah, but I figured that all of the vegetation could've just died out after the strike, but not directly because of temperature change (which is what caused all of the mass extinctions on Earth). In a "normal" asteroid strike, *something* would've survived and adapted.... not to mention the entire planet would've become very uncomfortable in extreme cold.
I guess what I'm wondering now is, would an incredibly massive blast of ionized plasma (like a bunch of the Romulan plasma cannons, or something similar) have caused the atmospheric disruptions and storms that we saw?
An uninformed analogy might be the effects of solar flares that we see here on Earth -- knocking out the power, disrupting communications, and causing the Aurora Borealis, for example. Would something on a much greater scale cause the planet-wide storms in "The Enemy," even 200 years later?
Failing that, what other technological means (read: weapons) might be used?
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posted
GC also had that nasty EM field problem that screwed Geordi so hard. Possibly GC had it's Van Allen belt ripped up by stray nuclear weapons fire (beams, not bombs) and that's why it sucks so hard to be stranded there but it probably was'nt a class M garden spot to begin with.
It's also possible that one side or the other was terraforming GC when war broke out and abandoned it as part of the peae treaty.
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posted
One small suggestion from a dramatic point of view; Why not make GC a Romulan outpost instead of an Earth one? That way you can have the Romulans blast their own planet to keep it from being occupied by Earth forces and denying them a foot hold in their territory and it'd reinforce why the Romulans were never seen face to face, because it became a purely space based war.
That behavior would be consistant with what we've seen of the Romulans, they did after all slaughter their own invasion force in (TNG "Unification").
posted
Tough call. Yes, that's consistent with TNG Romulans, but not the earlier TOS Romulans. They seem to have gotten sneaky and deceitful sometime after 2290. No, I'm not saying the cloaking device isn't sneaky, just that -- as portrayed -- the Romulans used to be the honorable adversaries and the Klingons were the lying, sneering, backstabbing @$$holes. Pity that changed. I didn't mind the Klingons getting more depth. I just wish it hadn't been at the expense of what I think was the coolest TOS race...
Hm...
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posted
Kris: Actually, Masao did at some point allude to the Romulans wiping out some of their own planets for defensive purposes. And I've already been considering the same thing -- thanks for confirming I'm not totally out there!
As for their actions being inconsistent with TOS Romulans... well, I would *totally* disagree with that assessment. I submit that the Romulan Commander from "Balance of Terror" was an unusual individual, not representative of the norm in Romulan society. After all, if the Romulan government decided to launch such a sneak attack in the first place, that doesn't indicate many "honorable" intentions, to my way of thinking. The only other time we saw the Romulans in TOS, in "The Enterprise Incident," may not apply because that Commander was obviously incredibly naive and ineffective.
We've seen a few honorable Romulans in TNG's time, too -- "The Defector," for example, and "Unification." So I think that there's much less of a drastic change than one might think.
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Perhaps terraforming equipment can render a planet uninhabitable. The Romulans may have just left it slightly habitable to use it as a strike base.
I think that there are two types of Romulans: Honorable and Decietful. Perhaps the Honorable ones (ridgeless?) lost power after 2290 and were overcome by the ridged ones.
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posted
How about having the humans as the ones who fried the planet? Wouldn't exactly put it past them, being only semi-enlightened during that period of time. Or hey, if you set it in the ENT universe, you can have those nasty, illogical Vulcans do it.
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