>> Nukes aren't used in surface battles; only in space. That's the "unwritten
>> law," which is why the Westerland incident was so shocking, even to
>> the Imperials.
>
> Speaking of which, letting it happen was the wrong discision on the
> part of Reinhard.
>
actually, didn't reinhard ultimately to decide to dispatch a fleet to
intercept the nukes? as i recall, oberstein lied to reinhard about the
nukes' ETA to westerland and sent a scout vessel to make sure the incident
was caught on film (or whatever they use in the empire).
as angry as he was with oberstein, he assumed responsibility for
allowing the disaster to happen. for me, it was all that much more
poignant, because we get to see the settlers on the planet discussing what
to do next; they pinned their hopes that they could count on reinhard to
protect them from retribution from the nobles.
unfortunately, we don't get to see the delivery system used. i mean,
was it a ship or fleet of ships that just dropped a bomb? or was it some
kind of missile? whatever it was, it almost certainly had to be
warp-capable.
-- Wayne H. Yin why@mail.utexas.edu