B5: And Now For a Word

[CrypticMirror]

I have to wonder here if G'Kar was covering his ass a wee bit here, since he claims the Centauri were gathering here to use mass drivers, and while they found the blueprints in the ship... we see later on that it's a genuine shock to Londo that Reefa wants to use them (and he was in a position of genuine authority, he made this possible, so no way they would not tell him), and later episodes imply they just grabbed 'em from the asteroid field in the solar system of the Narn homeworld to throw at the planet. Very spur of the moment. Not planned out. Besides, how much planning is needed to tractor an asteroid to a nearby world?

Well, it strikes me that there is a difference between having mass drivers and using them - and perhaps there are legitimate military uses that Londo would see as forgiveable. In any case, it was not the use of mass drivers alone that bothered Londo, but their use on the Narn homeworld. Using them on a far-flung colony or on a planetary military outpost is a different thing than using them on a world with a population at least in the ten figures.

Also, mass drivers are not asteroids. They are the linear motors used to catapult the asteroids. The payload itself is almost always going to be taken from the system of the planet being attacked, because it is a more efficient way to get mass than transporting large chunks of matter through hyperspace.

I can see them being useful in some types of terraforming. They'd be a good way of getting a lot of water and heat into a marginal planet's atmosphere. Harvest a bunch of chunks from a suitable cometary source, and fire them at high speed into the (uninhabited) planet you want to terraform, and then wait a couple of decades for the dust to die down enough. Or you could use them in moving asteroids into trojan points for space colonisation purposes, or asteroid mining, if you do the calculations correctly. I can see there being legitimate uses. It is like any technology, it all depends on the motives of the people using it and how much oversight and control those people are subject to.

[Taurian Patriot]

I can see there being legitimate uses. It all depends on the motives of the people using it and how much oversight and control those people are subject to.

Absolutely. Nobel conceived dynamite as a convenient excavation tool, and it's still handy for controlled demolition of all sorts. Hell, scientists even managed to find a constructive use of atom bombs - the Project Orion spacecraft, which was designed to send massive payloads into space by riding 800 atomic explosions out of the atmosphere. Pound for pound, it would be far more efficient than rocket fuel, if it wasn't for the issue of the projected fallout killing 10% of the Earth's population.

I suppose "constructive" is a relative term there, but it's the same idea with the mass drivers, really. You could do all sorts of helpful things with carefully-calculated destruction, as long as there aren't any people in the way.

[Robovski]

Mass drivers can launch payloads. Those payloads are high velocity mass and so is dangerous, dangerous things can be weapons.

[Madner Kami]

Mass drivers can launch payloads. Those payloads are high velocity mass and so is dangerous, dangerous things can be weapons.

Everything can be a weapon, if sufficient force (in physics terminology) is applied.

[Robovski]

Mass drivers can launch payloads. Those payloads are high velocity mass and so is dangerous, dangerous things can be weapons.

Everything can be a weapon, if sufficient force (in physics terminology) is applied.

Yep, that's my point. I stopped short of describing some of the common items we live with that could be weaponized in my post because really, this point should be pretty obvious. Having mass drivers themselves is much like having cars and trucks - things that move things than can be dangerous if used in a different way.

[G-Man]

I also need to point out there that I am not arguing that was any real likelihood that the Centauri had a legitimate reason for transporting mass drivers - just that there are theoretical reasons that Londo could use to rationalize that the Centauri really were not planning to use WMDs on the Narn.

[Nightbeat74]

ok a lot of this is about bad news,i think we need some more happy news,you can look up if you want the good news network it has heartwarming stories like dog saves kittens from freezing or U.S.Navy saves sea turtles and cool stuff such as breakthrough medical stuff and turning volcanic ash into bricks in the Philippines.

[Mecha82]

It's just that good news don't tend to draw people's attention like bad news do and are often forgotten when bad news has people talking longer time before next bad news that they care about comes out which is pretty much daily.

[CareerKnight]

And I wonder if the fact the news crew was coming is what started this. The Narn probably knew something was up, but decided to act when they knew cameras were going to be on it. Then they could have ISN broadcast their findings. And the Centari similarly sent the cruiser knowing it would be on the news. Both sides wanted a propaganda win to gain the favor of other races and the Earth Alliance having their back would be a huge asset.

As for an Earth/Centari war, the exchange between Londo and Garabaldi suggests Sheridan is overestimating the Centari (though I would overestimate my potential enemies as well). The Centari is a species in decline. In Babylon 5 Wars they say most Centari designs are centuries old and designed more to keep the subject races of the Republic in line than fight another major power. While Earth basically had to rebuild their military from the ground up in the last decade with the most advanced technology available to them. The Centari's primary advantage is probably superior numbers of ships. It would be an unprecedented bloodbath, especially since the Centari would be willing to bomb civilian targets from the beginning rather than the Minbari who concentrated on Earth Force first and would have dealt with the civilians afterward, but in the end Earth would get the hollow victory of being the last one standing. Not a war anyone should want to fight on either side.

I could buy the Narn doing it for attention (I doubt G'Kar was the only one hoping to get Earth or even the Minbarii on their side) but I don't think the Centauri cared about gaining favor (they were winning the war). If they even cared that an Earth news crew was there then their likely message was "Don't F with us cause we are taking this seriously."

As for Centauri ships I think that assessment is either inaccurate or misleading as later this season we see a Centauri warship split its firepower between B5 and a Narn ship and still get through B5's upgraded defensive screen which we had never seen happen before (so if they are old designs then they still have better firepower than Earth ships).

[Al-1701]

As for Centauri ships I think that assessment is either inaccurate or misleading as later this season we see a Centauri warship split its firepower between B5 and a Narn ship and still get through B5's upgraded defensive screen which we had never seen happen before (so if they are old designs then they still have better firepower than Earth ships).

The Centauri (yeah, that's how it's spelled) line their ships with a lot of fast firing light weapons on wide ard turrets with a small number of heavy weapons. For all the firepower it put out, the Centauri ship didn't impede the Narn ship at all and only did superficial damage to Babylon 5. And when Babylon 5 returned fire, it inflicted fatal damage without even trying.

Compare that to the battle in Severed Dream the next season. Two Omega Destroyers and the station versus two Omega Destroyers and two Hyperion Cruisers, and they really won because a badly damaged Churchill rammed the relatively intact Agrippa and even then Babylon 5 and the Alexander were hanging on by a thread with no hope against another two Omegas and a single Hyperion.

Again, it would not a clean victory by any stretch, but I think Earth would have the edge. And the Centauri certainly believed so and that the gap was only going to widen. As Londo put it, Earth were the new sharks in town.