A theory on how the Bobs could have taken out the fleet of The Others
Hello, I have finished the second book and I kept thinking about the relativistic projectile weapon idea that was briefly explored by the Bobs. They say that it would be easy to detect and dodge the projectile. My idea modifies the projectiles a bit.
takes The Others 9 years to arrive at their destination, first detected at their home star, Gliese 887, in 2208, and arriving at their destination, Delta Pavonis. For the plan to work, we have to assume/hope that the Bobs have taken control of a system somewhere near Gliese 887, approximately 5 to 8.5 light years away.
I'm not sure how much one of their ships weighs, but for this plan, the kinetic weapons would basically only need a drive and some basic targeting computer. The projectiles would accelerate at a constant 10 g for 5 years straight, aiming at the predicted location of the fleet of The Others. I feel it's safe to assume the trajectory is predictable — it seems that The Others are arrogant and not scared.
There would be a bomb that would explode all the mass into a ginormous cloud of shrapnel, like an immense shotgun blast. We know that the SUDDAR the fleet uses has a range of 1 light hour, meaning they have 1 hour to react to the relativistic shrapnel.
Assuming they accelerate at 12.5 g perpendicular to the trajectory of the debris cloud, they could reach a circle with a radius of ~794,000 km. If we need 100 kilotons of TNT of energy per square kilometre for the total area they can access in one hour, which is ~1.98 × 10¹² km², we would need just ~182,100 tonnes of payload. This seems feasible for the Bobs to manage. If more time is available or if less explosive energy is needed, the mass could be lower.
Do you think this strategy might work?
Also please don't spoil anything past the second book, I've just finished reading it.