Planetary invasions

A few interesting thoughts here:

1. Rob, yes, the forces invading Anglo-Saxon England would quickly
adjust to the nerve gas attack. Then come the claymores. Then the radar
decoys, then... :-)

2. Traveller seems to be woefully lacking in kinetic kill weapons. For
instance, something likke the THOR system that was once proposed in the
80's would make a great ground suport weapon for orbital forces. How
*do* you stop what is essential a 5-20 kilo steel bar with *very*
rudimentary steering and target identification? Especially when it's
coming in at orbital velocity!

3. Deep meson sites. Assuming an earthlike planet (crustal plates over
a fluid mantle), is it possible to design a a "sub-terrene" to house
the meson gun? This would be a *mobile* installation "swimming" thru
the mantle. While at rest, It could attach to the bottom of the crust,
and use temperature differentials btween the mantle and crust for
power. Or it could use a reactor. Lots of luck getting close enough to
use a densitometer.
	As for relaying sensor info to meson sites, it may be possible
to *broadcast* the info in some way. Does Traveller allow for neutrino
communicators? If not, other means *are* possible. Say by having the
relay site use a meson gun to cause deep explosions, modulating them
would send sound waves all around the world. Data rate would be low,
but not impossibly so.

4. Someone made a comment about "you can put a *lot* of lasers on a
planet". This got me to thinking. If every public and commercial
building was required to incorporate a small ground to orbit capable
weapon (say a pulse laser with a low rate of fire), just how bad is
that for the attackers?
	Using my example, so what if it takes the generator/solar
cellsa/whatever an hour to recharge the laser after every shot? There
are an *awful* lot of them in a fair sized city! Porcupine style
defenses have their points.
	If the attackers were dumb enough to concentrate their forces
in orbit, a simple set of target co-ordinates over the public
communications channels (phone, cable, broadcast radio & tv) would
likely result in *billions* of pulses arriving in that area. With a
better job of control (more centralized) it might be possible to create
what I'll call a "phased array laser". That would be *really* nasty.
	But even localized control aiming at broadcast co-ordinates
ought to be devastating.