General Order 24

[Robert Walper]

From my own recollection, Scotty did mention that the Enterprise had acquired and locked all cities and installations planet wide. However, the extent of the damage their attack would have done is unknown. I believe it is reasonable to assume the Enterprise would have quickly "nuked" the majority of the targets(on par at the very least with a modern nuclear submarine). But I didn't and still don't see this as being nearly quite as devestating as the apparent BDZ operation.

[The Silence and I]

All this really means is the E-nil has a firepower comparable to the nuclear arsenals of earth today. It's not like they were gonna slag the crust. Although it does imply phasers are at least high-end KT, otherwise it would take too many shots+too long.

[Uraniun235]

Scotty: All cities and installations on Eminiar 7
Scotty: have been located, identified,

Oh for fuck's sake, don't nitpick. You know full well that I meant if it had the firepower to destroy the planet's crust they would only target the defence systems first and then just slag it however the geology seems most advantageous.

Not necessarily. Keep in mind this is a General Order, designed to be applicable to any situation where a Captain (or higher) deems it necessary.

Hence, in the event the target planet was of a more advanced government, cities would also need to be targeted first to ensure minimal, if not zero, escapees. While the Federation seems to lack personal craft (although Cyrano Jones had his own ship), other planets could very well have small fleets of ships that might be able to escape with survivors as the starship was working on the other side of the planet. The important thing is to kill as many people and destroy as much hardware as possible in the opening volleys so as to reduce the chance of escaping ships... unless you're implying they had the firepower to slag the crust in mere minutes.