The Breen Attack On Earth

[Into Darkness]

The Breen some how managed to not only reach Earth but attack San Fransisco. If they were so capable of reaching Earth why didn't they simply warp a cloaked asteroid into Earth orbit and have an engine attached to it that pushed it's speed up to close the speed of light and slam it into Earth and wipe out the planets surface?
Why do a regular attack with ships if you can get that close?

EDIT: Infact this is an idea the Xindi in ENT could have used. Why build a thing that huge and have it fire beam weapons? could have just built it and slammed it into Earth at full sublight speed and job's a good un.

 

[vulcan redshirt]

I think something was mentioned by a Weyoun that they ideally wanted a slave population, in preference to total destruction, so that may be why the Breen were under ordrs to hit Starfleet Command, and leave the rest of the planet alone.

 

[-Brett-]

Not every war is automatically a total war. We don't really know why the Breen joined the Dominion, but it seems an excuse to commit genocide wasn't the reason.

Maybe the Breen simply aren't that over the top evil.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Attacking planets with .99c moving objects is one of those things that the writers ignore because it would break the story.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

The Female Changeling had promised the Breen control of Earth once they won the war, so the Confederacy would not want to totally obliterate their target--it's been shown they use slave labour for their mining operations, which would be likely the same on Earth and the other worlds of the Sol System.

Also, the effects of attacking and causing massive damage but leaving demoralised and defeated survivors would go a long way in the psychology of war--showing everyone just how vulnerable Earth was to a conventional attack, everyone would be wondering what else the Breen could do to it or other planets.

 

[bbjeg]

The Breen weren't considered enemies before the attack. It's possible the Earth government welcomed them. The attack on Starfleet could have been a slap on the face, discouraging them to trust other ambassadors during the war, and a message to the Dominion that they mean business. I agree with what was already posted about what was to follow. Stop Federation forces/enslave earth populous.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

If you could create enough energy to push an asteroid near the speed of light, why bother with the asteroid. Just send the energy.

 

[Jono]

Why bother with an asteroid? If you're able to get into Earth orbit, just go the rest of the way and slam into the planet. Or do what they did in the B5 spinoff...which I think was called Crusader or something (I don't care enough to Google it) and poison the planet. Sisko was able to cobble something together on the run on the Defiant to poison a Maquis planet, so I'm sure the Breen could do the same to Earth with some planning.

Anyway, as we later hear the Founder promised Earth to the Breen as part of joining the war on the Dominion's side so the Breen are going to be a bit reluctant to blow it up before they even get the keys to the planet.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

Why bother with an asteroid? If you're able to get into Earth orbit, just go the rest of the way and slam into the planet. Or do what they did in the B5 spinoff...which I think was called Crusader or something (I don't care enough to Google it) and poison the planet. Sisko was able to cobble something together on the run on the Defiant to poison a Maquis planet, so I'm sure the Breen could do the same to Earth with some planning.

Anyway, as we later hear the Founder promised Earth to the Breen as part of joining the war on the Dominion's side so the Breen are going to be a bit reluctant to blow it up before they even get the keys to the planet.

What was being suggested by the OP was more than just using an asteroids natural mass and velocity to cause an extinction event by changing its trajectory. The Xindi weapon aimed for the complete destruction of the planet, not just extinction, and accelerating an asteroid near the speed of light would achieve that. Of course, infinite energy is required as one approaches the speed of light, making the mass of the asteroid immaterial. Rather than a convoluted scheme to accelerate the asteroid near the speed of light, just direct the energy at the planet. It would do the same job, and probably wouldn't need to be as precise of a weapon.

 

[F. King Daniel]

One photon torpedo set to high yield should have been enough to raze all of San Francisco and render it uninhabitable for centuries (antimatter = FAR more destructive than a nuclear blast). Why didn't the Breen do that? No good reason.

 

[Into Darkness]

It pains me that the Breen could have wiped Earth out if they had wanted to. Earth was caught with its pants down and being Human I find that embarrassing.
Not happy about it lol.

 

[Shik]

Why bother with an asteroid? If you're able to get into Earth orbit, just go the rest of the way and slam into the planet. Or do what they did in the B5 spinoff...which I think was called Crusader or something (I don't care enough to Google it) and poison the planet. Sisko was able to cobble something together on the run on the Defiant to poison a Maquis planet, so I'm sure the Breen could do the same to Earth with some planning.

Anyway, as we later hear the Founder promised Earth to the Breen as part of joining the war on the Dominion's side so the Breen are going to be a bit reluctant to blow it up before they even get the keys to the planet.

What was being suggested by the OP was more than just using an asteroids natural mass and velocity to cause an extinction event by changing its trajectory. The Xindi weapon aimed for the complete destruction of the planet, not just extinction, and accelerating an asteroid near the speed of light would achieve that. Of course, infinite energy is required as one approaches the speed of light, making the mass of the asteroid immaterial. Rather than a convoluted scheme to accelerate the asteroid near the speed of light, just direct the energy at the planet. It would do the same job, and probably wouldn't need to be as precise of a weapon.

Except that Earth had that verteron array on Mars which could've easily deflected the asteroid, plus ships & Vulcans to help that. Probably they couldn't just sent it through the little corridor thing like a piloted probe, although why they tested it on the target is beyond me; it's like dropping the Trinity bomb on Nagoya: "Hey, guys, don't mind us...we just want to see if this thing we want to use to kill you all works & kills some of you..."

 

[bbjeg]

^Yeah, that confused me too.

 

[PhoenixClass]

Also, I don't believe the Breen or the Dominion ever used cloaking technology at all.

Physically destroying the planet would also wipe out all the technology that the conquering could acquire.

 

[Silvercrest]

Attacking planets with .99c moving objects is one of those things that the writers ignore because it would break the story.

Like the implications of an awful lot of their technology. Matter-energy conversion, teleportation, gravity control ....

If you could create enough energy to push an asteroid near the speed of light, why bother with the asteroid. Just send the energy.

Sounds like someone has been reading James Hogan.

And you're right.

 

[Shik]

Also, I don't believe the Breen or the Dominion ever used cloaking technology at all.

The Breen were believed to have fitted their ships with cloaks, as per TNG S5 "Hero Worship".

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

One photon torpedo set to high yield should have been enough to raze all of San Francisco and render it uninhabitable for centuries (antimatter = FAR more destructive than a nuclear blast). Why didn't the Breen do that? No good reason.

But photon torpedos are never portrayed as that powerful. All the detonations we see seem puny and conventional.

The only instance where it's kinda up in the air is Balance of Terror, their original use where the spread pattern covered huge chunks of space to rattle the Romulans a bit.

 

[JarodRussell]

The Breen some how managed to not only reach Earth but attack San Fransisco. If they were so capable of reaching Earth why didn't they simply warp a cloaked asteroid into Earth orbit and have an engine attached to it that pushed it's speed up to close the speed of light and slam it into Earth and wipe out the planets surface?
Why do a regular attack with ships if you can get that close?

EDIT: Infact this is an idea the Xindi in ENT could have used. Why build a thing that huge and have it fire beam weapons? could have just built it and slammed it into Earth at full sublight speed and job's a good un.

Because they already did that on Stargate?

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Yeah, several episodes have established how easy it is to destroy a planet. In The Chase a small Klingon science vessel destroys an entire biosphere. In a DS9 episode a small shuttle nearly blows up a sun.

But the writers have to ignore that or else the war lasts three hours.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

Well, war has political objectives. It's not just about blowing things up. And presumably, some of these planets have some actual defenses.