Ideally, planetary defence meson guns will be linked into the planetary power
grid which will include deep power plants, placed away from the meson gun
sites. The power plants on the planets surface will be in or near cities and
so be protected by the cities screens. The deep meson guns and deep power plants
will be the biggest secrets on(in) the planet and will have the best screens
possible.
This means that attackers will have to destroy the power plants. While there is
any power available the deep meson guns can keep firing (their own neutrino
detectors provide targetting information). The attackers cannot spot the meson
guns unless the defenders kindly place fusion power plants with them to be
spotted. Assuming the attackers have massive superiority they can destroy all
the power plants, but this will probably destroy most of the industries,
infrastructure and population that make the planet valuable.
A fleet that attacks a well-defended world is not going to to do so for loot or
slaves - and any possible loot or slaves could not conceivably pay for the
losses incurred by a fleet big enough to succeed. For that sort of thing there
are plenty of lightly defended or undefended worlds around.
Could someone please tell me what are the range modifiers for Meson guns and
particle accelerators in MT. My rulebooks quote both -1 and -2 for planetary
range for Meson guns and say nothing about particle accelerators.
Someone once posted limitations on the resolution of densitometers in MT.
Does any information exist on the resolution of neutrino sensors? What
about passive and active EMS? It would be nice to impose limitations on
passive sensors to give some reason for the existence of active ones.
Tom O'Neill