"If Terraforming Mars Awakened Something . . . BAD???" Topic

Things are moving along well in Mars. The terraforming operations are well ahead of schedule. Thousands of these are dotting the planet surface now . . .

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The planet has begun to have small rain showers, the first ones in millions of years. Soon, the entire planet will look something like this . . .

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The future looks great, until the flesh-eating Martian Triops started hatching all over the recently wet sands!!!

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Don't they kinda already look like the face-huggers in one of the Horror/SF movies done at the end of the 20th century?

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Except that these "sandfish", "sandkings", "Martian triops", whatever, can get big (3-4 feet in length) and move very, very fast through sand. As if swimming in it. And they love human flesh!!!

We didn't even notice them until after all the bodies in the cemeteries began to be devoured.

QUESTION:

So far from home, how could colonists and scientists deal with this deadly threat by things that seem to swim through the sands and attack where least expected? (Nuking from orbit is not an option here)

CC
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Mine fields around human habitations.
Relocate to areas that are solid rock.
Watch all the Tremors movies to see how the townies survived.

Love the idea of having minefields!

CC

Chum the sand with poisoned food?

Put remote detonation devices in some food they eat, so that once they go back to their nest/hive/whatever, the explosive is blown destroying the nest.

Or more simply, discover their nest location by shooting a bunch of them with tracking devices from a hovercraft, & then somehow blast that location.

"from a hovercraft"

Ooo. Getting better!

CC

Run back to the atmospheric escape capsule, seal yourself in, and blastoff back to Earth.

Send robotic drones to catalog the creatures from a safe distance.

Mmmm, how do they taste ? The romans liked morays fed on slaves

Nuke it from orbit, it's the only way to be sure.

Lots of metal poles buried vertically in the ground and joined with tough monomolecular ghost netting. Baited fish hooks, only buried. Giant bio-engineered carnivorous moles.

vitrify the ground you build on. if youve the power to habiform a planet, you have the power to solidify the sand in areas you want to use to a thickness thats useful. end of problem, till some one decides that htere an endangered species and need there own preserves

Steel Penguin, I am "one of those people who decides…".
Remember that you don't just have carnivores in an eco-system. One obvious way to deal with the initial threat would be a latent poison/bio-engineered virus or whatever that the beasts carry back to their nests. Black Cavalier's explosives might be tricky if they nest underneath a dwelling. Once they are killed off, however, there will be a rapid expansion of the 'locust equivalent' that they normally feed on…

Live on the frozen ice caps, live in domes Live underground, it would protect against solar radiation and may even be warmer.

Just watch out for the rock snakes!

Invade another planet, destroy the environment, and consider a natives to be a pest that needs exterminated? Golden rule comes into play. Treat others like you'd want to be treated.

I think we shut down the hardware, stop wrecking the planet, and go home.

Very sensible remark by advocate ! So: try to discover what (other)kinds of life exist. Perhaps those triops originally eat beings that – after grown – use dead bodies as a host ? (Zombies !). That WOULD look like "from the frying pan in the fire…".
Wet sand ? How about metal poles with a current that protect the individual settlers farm ? In the distance the sound of the transformer (? I am not sure how to call this in English, I mean a machine that makes your current) can be heard. Oh dear, it suddenly fails, and the lights dim…

Porthos, very close but the word is "generator." A transformer is something that steps or steps down a voltage. Normally 440 volts to 220 volts.

(Or a silly cartoon or, more recently, a movie: Transformers.)

folks use 'sonic pest repeller system' plugged into their home outlets/wiring systems on earth NOW…to drive rodents, spider and other 'pest's OUT/keep them out of their homes etc…'Worm farmers' use 'fences' composed of metal stakes driven into the ground far enough below NORMAL 'earth worm' living layers…electrified to keep them from 'straying'…

The beasties obviously had SOME natural form of prey BEFORE humans…and are part of the ecosystem…there should be ways to 'manage' (as we have on earth with other species)…without 'mucking it up further'…(like cane toads, rabbits and wild dogs in Australia??? among others)..

Messing with any ecosystem is 'tricky'…so finding a way to 'fit into it'…without REPLACING one of the food sources with HUMANS…would be the key. As far as 'graveyards'…etc…considering the 'technology' for terraforming…why aren't humans 'recycling' their dead in fusion furnaces for the valuable chemicals/carbon etc instead of 'burying' them???

IF Mars had been totally lifeless…from the beginning, you'd have to 'build up' an entire ecosystem…including some 'pests', bacteria, fungi and so on…(just as on earth)…but if there is already some sort of ecosystem there…(dormant as part of one of Mars eons long geologic periods…like an ice-age etc…) then finding out what's 'normal' during the 'wet cycle' vs the dry might be something you should figure out.

Seems to me…back in the 60's or early 70's there was a Flash Gordon sunday comic run…(after the Mac Raboy era/WSC era)…where 'Heavy Gravity worlders' tried to 'terra-form' PLUTO and woke up all sorts of 'nasties'…and eventually those humans/'heavy-worlders' that survived…had to leave because the rapidly multiplying life forms/spiderbeasts, etc…ended up destroying the machinery that KEPT Pluto 'warm' and everything froze back up…

I think they (World Space Control/WSC) kept an 'emergecny domed base' there…unmanned/unoccupied most of the time…but wrote the project off…

Another good 'example' of 'mucking' with an environment before finally learning about it was a story about an attempt to 'mine'/harness Halley's Comet…and the 'bioforms' that they ended up with..'Heart of the Comet' is the story I believe??? Adapt, evolve or perish

Call in the US Army Combat Engineers. Trenching and digging barriers, laying detcord, minefields and sensors. I can envision a Triops trap. A deep series of trenches run maze fashion on an area. Filled with naplam as the beasties burrow out the fall into the trench and being difficult to renter due to the trench being cemented the trench is lit roasting thousands.

Engineers might even find them tasty.

While never an Eco-Terrorist, I am thinking about the Law of Unintended Consequences and the book Legacy of Hereot (spelling?) in relation to this fevered imagination from CC. It's not "Real Life" so we can ignore the points advocate made or not as we desire for a game. Personally I (being a federal bureaucrat by training) like the idea that the rush to a solution (kind of like the current American Administration and other world wide socialist leaders responses to a man-made economic disaster) would actually worsen the situation. In gaming terms this has great campaign potential.

Irishserb, what if they can't "go home" for various reasons? That makes for a better game.

Okay, back to advocate for an answer; what happens after the UNSC (or whoever) screws up and eliminates the Triops then undertakes a massive campaign to reduce the exploding "Sand Locust" population? What next in the chain of Unintended Consequences? What flora or fauna do they keep in check that will become a problem?

CC, this has the potential for the never-ending campaign…

Garcias,

Glenn

"Golden rule comes into play"

Well, that is for human to human relationships, IMO, YMMV.

Gracias,

Glenn

Industrial strength bug zapper baited with some decomposing human flesh and loaded with human phermones to drive the critters crazy.

Long-term solution? Engineer a retro-virus that kills them.

Thank you, Mugwump, that's exactly what I meant (and, silly atechnical me, it is even the same word in Dutch !!)

I like the idea of them being only 8-10" actually…about the size of a piranha. Drawn to fresh blood, they just pop up for a nibble when the blood host is at rest, and take a small bite, then move on….hundreds take a bite. So just cover your wounds and if bleeding do not stop moving, ever…these guys climb quite well.

Even if they were 12" next to a full grown human (roughly 1/6 the length of a human), in miniature terms that would mean . . .

30mm human figure = 5mm "bugs"
15mm human figure = 2.5mm "bugs"

When sculpting for that size, a bug swarm would have to be the way to go. Single bugs will never get noticed, even cute ones like this motherly one here:

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These would be way to big then . . .

Otherworld's centipedes:
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Mississinewa's centipedes (NEW):
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CC

Ugly s !!!

burp…skitter skitter (into the walls….)

The thing is if you could terraform Mars, you have created a whole new ecosystem on it. You would bring things to it that are similar to our ecosystem on Earth. These things are still a threat to humans and the ecosystem that you have established on Mars.

Kill'em all and let the universe decide later if we were right or wrong to do so.

"Kill'em all and let the universe decide later if we were right or wrong to do so."

That works just fine until their long-lost spacefaring relatives come back to ask an inscrutable question using comms technology that fries all your own electronics.

In the process of terra reforming I am sure there will be many points of chaos therory put into place…nature will find a way. So you have simple little bunnies, brought in for snack food and then some how they are causing crop failures due to the hundreds of thousands running amok.

So let us introduce life to a once living place…some things take and some things don't. If not careful the balance of what should happen rather than what actually happens could create "bunnies".

Triops that gain the survival strengths of say a common cockroach…e freak'n gads.

With the realities of an introduced flora/fauna set you will find the little things that will be the devil in as far as the details…ants, bees, worms, etc.. the little guys who make all the dead stuff into fodder for the other stuff to grow on/with…replace them with things that do the same but can hurt us and you have a problem…move in the bees to pollenate and next thing you know they are aggresive and productive killing/breeding off all other types…they make great honey and kill you if you go near them (bunnies).

So the chance that something small is still alive on Mars waiting for another chance….maybe there is a reason Mars is currently "dead".

There must be chaos in the equation for terra reforming or it will not work…the first blight or other illness and you lose the whole link of a very small chain holding a great deal of weight…fall down go boom. There must be room for nature to work, fail, and succeed. AI and other sources are find to consider but in the end chaos and nature will come full circle.

So if you can accept that Mars could be terra reformed in a lifetime then just accept that there could be critters there already or the elements to change the ones we bring into something new…and bitey.

I would love to have a science fiction game, RPG or skirmish, where it is just us, Humans making our way through the local area…few space stations, mining operations, serious shutle routes, more in space/stations/moons/ships than on Earth…we are working hard to make Mars viable…and we find a funny little rock with strange DNA…we wake up dormant Tyranids en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyranids or the like.

Not the smart, draw in the mega fleet of bio death but rather the potential of life that burned out the planet before…eat itself to death or sleep.

We wake it up, present it with food and new resources, it begins anew…great we unleashed hell and Mars becomes a Death World.

Now we are talking interesting fun times….hard science fiction with that little bump of fantasy…now what? They adapt to everything, they absorb everything, they are everywhere, millions of people can not leave the planet due to massive quarentine ('nids found on out bound ships…dun dun dunnnnn), we can send in support for those left behind…but it is getting bad…

…and you were worried about Triops hahahhahhaha

(sorry for hijacking your thread CC I needed a break from my projects…aw well back to it)

Find out what repels the critters – whether it is banana oil or the sound of accordions – and deploy countermeasures as appropriate.

Or, wait for the 6-foot tall, four-armed red Martian women to emerge from their sleep pods. They know where the cans of Triops Chow are buried and, in the meantime they could really use a shoulder rub…

Wyatt

I thought Martian women where green…or right…those are Orions…

Play some Slim Whitman.

Find out what attracts them, then lay out barriers to funnel them into a wood chipper. The remains can then be composted for use in farming areas. Nothing goes to waste…! ;)

The real problem is that once we find an indigenous life form on Mars, all the tree huggers will demand the Government to shut down this operation; start a series of outrageous lawsuits agaainst any & all involved in this enterprise, then demand that we do all we can to save these poor critters from heathen earthmen. (or is that earth people ?)

Two phased kill device. Phase 1) shallow embeddment vibration device to attract all of 'em within a set area. 2) High energy microwave emitter to boil the lil s around the VD in their own juices.

Could also use a VD to attract then have it release/inject a blast of liquid nitrogen…freezing the bug solid nearly instantly.

Heh, heh. He said "VD". :)

CC

The Khurasan Miniatures bugs would eat all of these for lunch!

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The front body part alone is said to be 15mm deep, so that probably makes the whole body (sans limbs) about 25mm long. Where's my industrial size fly swatter?

And if you buy them in packs of 20 or larger they are actually cheaper than the Otherworld bugs!

"…they make great honey and kill you if you go near them (bunnies)…"

I thought "Killer Bees" were an invasive (native) species from South America? They are native to Earth. Maybe Triops like Honey?

Gracias,

Glenn

Other bug suggestions here:

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CC

"…I think we shut down the hardware, stop wrecking the planet, and go home…":

I wish but politics would almost completely prevent that logical choice.

"…a latent poison/bio-engineered virus or whatever that the beasts carry back to their nests…"

"…Engineer a retro-virus that kills them…."

Um, the Law of Unintended Consequences comes to mind. "Sand Locusts" may be the least of the problems involved in these answers. Man, this campaign may literally continue to play out until the last human.

Gracias,

Glenn

Warbeads…they are from S.America by way of Africa…I was just using a common point of reference… Africanized hybrid bees are more productive then their calm cousins.

I was just saying a species selected for one thing, say honey, could end up providing something else that was unitentional or planned for…swarms of flying death.

Now there I am completely in agreement with you.

"Surprise!" is not something I like in my line of Work or life in general…

Gracias,

Glenn

Warbeads: "CC, this has the potential for the never-ending campaign…"

Well, isn't that what we already have on Earth with them critters? :)

CC

Planet M-113 looks a heck of a lot like Mars in this picture, doesn't it?

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CC

All i going to say is..

" MARS NEEDS WOMEN "…………

Check out the vehicle in this clip:

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CC

Cities after Mars is terraformed:

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CC

Risk 2210 – Mars???

Hadn't seen this yet:

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CC

This is very weird:

"It is the dawn of the 21st century. Mankind has terraformed and colonized Mars. But we are not alone in the universe. An ancient race of alien beings, known only as 'The Gods', has been watching mankind's progress…and waiting. Now, these mysterious aliens have returned to halt mankind's expansion into space…by force. Now, the planet named after the God of War will become our final battlefield, as mankind fights a desperate battle with the latest in high-tech, military hardware: hyper-advanced aircraft, orbital fighters, and gigantic, desert battleships brimming with the most advanced weaponry. But will it be enough? The aliens have awesome, incredibly destructive weapons at their disposal – including 'Hell' – an unstoppable stealth carrier. But the alien's primary weapon is insidiously quiet and invisible – a mind control plaque. Incurable. Inevitable. Contagious. Humans are powerless to resist its effects, which transforms even the most loyal soldiers into dangerous subversives. Our last hope lies with Captain Akuh and the crew of the Battleship Aoba. If his top-secret mission is successful, mankind will deal a decisive blow to the alien armada. But Akuh's girlfriend is showing signs of nymphomania – the first symptom of alien subversion! (taken from Animenfo)"
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