Jamesfirecat wrote:Also in response to the question of if we just handed Micheal a 50KT warhead and the ability to have sent it anywhere, remember even he seems to need a Nephilliam in order to pick the location he portals down to earth. (Do angels need Nephs the way that Baldricks do? It certaintly makes more sense then them not needing them) Thus with him not knowing how much time was left on the bomb is he more likely to play "where in the world is Carmen Sandiego" and try to find an unprotected Neph nearby some big important human target, or is he going to go with the one whose location he knows by heart and send the cart right back where it came from ASAP?
Obviously, he wanted the nuke gone ASAP. As I already said, if he was really on his toes he
could, I think, have sent it anywhere, though of course we're largely ignorant of the intricacies of portal physics. It's possible that setting up a portal right back to a recently opened location is slightly faster (for reasons other than just personal limitations). It's also possible that Michael-Lan didn't
want to hit a bigger target; his actions against the humans so far have all been dictated to him by the big boss. If he wants to eventually come to some sort of understanding with the humans, that will be easier achieved if he isn't seen to be taking personal actions that kill thousands (or millions) of people.
The most reasonable explanation for why Michael-Lan sent the bomb back where it came from is simple: he was under duress, and it was likely the first (and therefore quickest) option that occurred to him. My point is that a man of General Petraeus' intelligence would have had to have considered the possibility of the nuke coming back in at a higher-value target.
With respect to your other point, I don't believe that Nephilim are required on the receiving end for the angels. Nothing indicates that they have this limitation. It's interesting that Michael-Lan once required a chorus to insert himself into Uriel's fight, but that seems to have been an issue of precision (or, perhaps, the countermeasures being used at the time). At other times they seem to be able to slip back and forth without anyone else nearby. Uriel, for example, was able to portal near LA without anyone else nearby.
Darth Wong wrote:I think perhaps people are forgetting the urgency of the situation (maybe the story hasn't mentioned it enough times for it to sink in). People are dying in large numbers as a result of all these different kinds of attacks, and Earth has been taking it on the chin pretty badly for some time now. The story tends to focus on Earth's attempts to strike back rather than doing as a Hollywood movie would do, and dwelling on the losses and emotions associated with those losses, so it's easy to lose track of that. Basically, anywhere in the world that there's severe weather (and there's usually severe weather somewhere), the enemy is making it worse and causing large-scale destruction and death. In countries whose infrastructure is not as well-built as ours, the effects of such attacks would be even worse. There is some real urgency, and so a certain amount of risk-taking is not out of line.
As I said, I would likely have taken the same risk. I might have set it up a little differently, but I still would have taken the same shot, since it was the best one to come along to date.
73% of all statistics are made up, including this one.
I'm waiting as fast as I can.
"
- PeZook
