Questions tagged [weapon-mass-destruction]
For questions that deal with weapons of mass destruction (WMD).
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What would large scale war with tactical nukes look like? [closed]
In this world set in a near future setting, nuclear weapons are somewhat widespread by both sides. The thing is, due to dimensional shenanigans, both sides are mostly unable to strike the strategic ...
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Can anyone win a "game" of Rocket Tag on an interstellar level against a prepared opponent?
Relativistic Kinetic Kill Vehicles (RKKVs) are all but undetectable until it's far too late to do anything about them; they have a very low radiation profile once at cruising velocity, their exhaust ...
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How speedy is a temporal weapon’s destruction of a planet?
In my world there is such thing as a temporal weapon: a device which radically alters the flow of time in a given region by fueling a warp drive-like device with the concentrated energy of a ...
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Why aren't there kamikaze warp bombs?
Rules of the universe
In this universe (which yes is related to the one in this question), a species has achieved faster-than-light travel with some caveats. A ship with a warp drive, a device that ...
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What's a semi-plausible 24 hour planetary sterilization look like?
In my setting, there is a type of airborne fungal spore that can infect all living matter, and a Star Wars Galactic Empire style/sized faction that wants to sterilize planets with this spore ...
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Effects of a hypothetical "proton-decay" bomb for a fictional story
I initially asked this question on Physics Stack Exchange, and was then redirected here. I would very much appreciate the input of any physicists who might be reading this.
I'm writing a science ...
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Is it possible for a type 3 civilisation to use a blackhole bomb to stop a gamma ray burst?
A gamma-ray burst can be caused for multiple reasons. Some of the more common ones is that either a supermassive star undergoes a supernova and collapses into a black hole, two neutron stars collide, ...
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What would a glassed planet really look like?
While the Halo franchise has used it a lot, other franchises have also mentioned/threatened with the idea of glassing a planet. The sheer heat of the attacks used on the planet to make it ...
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Sterilising a planet quickly and realistically [duplicate]
So in a red dwarf system with two planets, both of them develop life, but the inner planet develops advanced life much quicker than the outer one and is equivalent to current human tech, maybe a ...
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What wild mammals could survive a nuclear winter? [closed]
I'm writing a story that takes place after a nuclear winter that lasts for at least 25 years, and which caused much of the surviving population to become hunter-gatherers as a result of crop failure ...
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Good reasons the powerful good guys don't fight the powerful bad guys
It's a typical trope in stories, but why don't the powerful good guys fight the powerful bad guys? Usually a group of nobodies need to grow in power to the point that they're able to face the powerful ...
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What would a small Death Star look like? [closed]
Most of us know the Death Star from Star Wars - a huge planet like structure built in order to destroy planets (160 km in diameter Google says). Now building something that big seems like an overkill.
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Can a floating launch platform be built and deployed quickly?
In my story, the supervillain loads ICBM missiles onto a ship and fires them from sea. He can't use a naval ship with missile launchers; that'll arouse suspicion. He uses a civilian cargo ship.
Could ...
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Could Tesla coils be used for missile defense?
Some facts about the real world, Terra 2023: tensions between Russia, NATO, China, DPRK, India etc. are high. These powers keep trying to get the edge over each other to establish missile supremacy. ...
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Turning a star into a black hole
**(context, skip over if you want)**Imagine a type II alien civilization that spans a large portion of its galaxy. The only reason it’s gotten this far is becuase of their aggression, but there is ...
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