The biggest trouble with Meson Subs, as I see it, is that the seas might not
be deep enough to hide them below the range of TL16 densitometers. But those
sensors spells trouble even for deep meson pits - the environment at below 25km
is decidedly hostile on molten core size 8 planets.
If it could be handled - the Darrian Abh (or was it Udh?) probe comes to
mind - the idea of a sub-tectonic sub is nice.
If it can't be handled, some other means of protecting the sites from
detection has to be used.
Someone wrote about using robots to dig random tunnels to the sites, why not
do as in the original MX proposal and have the meson guns on vehicles that move
randomly *in* the tunnels? To keep densitometers from detecting the meson
vehicle in the tunnel, the tunnel sides are covered with grav-plates. This also
makes moving the vehicle easier. Seismic methods might also be defeated by this,
in a manner similar to 'active sound damping'.
That the tunnels exist, and where they are, are no secret. Where the meson gun
vehicles are at a given moment is secret, and probably impossible to detect or
calculate if they use atom-decay random mumber generators.
[Or, perhaps not: "Sir! The enemy is using nuclear dampers on us! All our
meson vehicles are crowding up at the northen end of the tunnels!"]
- - -bertil-
- - --
"We're the Imperial Navy destroyer 'Reputation'!"
"Huh? Did you say 'the Imperial Navy destroyed our reputation'?"