Yuzzhan Vong vs The Borg

[Guest]

What kind of weaponry do the Vong use anyways? I know they use a lot of biotech, but I'm unfamiliar with the particulars of it. BTW, I can't stand "biotechnology" ships, and weapons, in science fiction. Unless it's biological weapons, as in NBC. That is different. Star Trek, Space Above & Beyond, B5, and even Star Wars now has been infected. I know there are other sci fi universes that have bio technology only races, but I can't think of them at the moment.

[Guest]

Fanatcial Islam and even the Taliban existed before 9-11 as well.

[Evil Jerk]

What kind of weaponry do the Vong use anyways? I know they use a lot of biotech, but I'm unfamiliar with the particulars of it. BTW, I can't stand "biotechnology" ships, and weapons, in science fiction. Unless it's biological weapons, as in NBC. That is different. Star Trek, Space Above & Beyond, B5, and even Star Wars now has been infected. I know there are other sci fi universes that have bio technology only races, but I can't think of them at the moment.

Meh, it's a silly fallacy that's been around for years.
Realistically, artificial tech will always beat organic stuff into a pulp, and that's the way I likes it.

[Guest]

What kind of weaponry do the Vong use anyways? I know they use a lot of biotech, but I'm unfamiliar with the particulars of it. BTW, I can't stand "biotechnology" ships, and weapons, in science fiction. Unless it's biological weapons, as in NBC. That is different. Star Trek, Space Above & Beyond, B5, and even Star Wars now has been infected. I know there are other sci fi universes that have bio technology only races, but I can't think of them at the moment.

Meh, it's a silly fallacy that's been around for years.
Realistically, artificial tech will always beat organic stuff into a pulp, and that's the way I likes it.

Do you know where this myth of "biotechnology superiority" originated from? I have read a lot of early science fiction and I don't recall having seen anything like it.

[Robert Walper]

Who voted for the Borg and why?

I did, because I strongly suspect Borg nanotechnology would be devestating to enemy vessels that are bio engineered.

Species 8472 was an exception because of it's incredible immune system, something I haven't read anything similar for the Vong.

[Singular Quartet]

I remember that there was a Voyager episode in which the Borg had developed an airborne assimilation virus. Does anyone remember that? If you do, do you think that would be effective against the Vong?

It was never actually made, but they had the idea thrown around for a little while.

[semi-attempt to throw this thread into the spinning doom of off-topicness]
What would the Vong consider the Thing to be?

[Crayz9000]

What kind of weaponry do the Vong use anyways? I know they use a lot of biotech, but I'm unfamiliar with the particulars of it.

They use... a lot of stuff.

The primary weapon of nearly all Yuuzhan Vong vessels is some sort of mechanism that converts gases into plasma and lobs it at enemy ships. It's mentioned as being inferior to most Republic/Imperial technology because the plasma travels much slower.

Bioweapons have been used on occasion, in varying forms. The first use of a bioweapon was when Mara Jade was infected with some engineered infection called coomb spores. It was apparently highly adaptive, and nothing that the NR medical technicians had available worked on it for long.

Another one was seen at the Battle of Ithor. In this case, as the Yuuzhan Vong were about to leave (in accordance with Corran Horn's terms), they launched two pods toward the planet at high speed. When the pods hit the atmosphere, they started releasing some type of bacteria, which rapidly metabolized anything organic.

After the agent was released (irradiating it, as Wong suggested concerning the B5 Shadow attack on Earth, was out of the question due to the Ithorian's view toward their bafforr forests) the bacteria began to multiply at an exponential rate, releasing a lot of additional hydrogen into the atmosphere.

When the Republic realized what was happening, they immediately engaged the retreating Vong ship and disabled it. It crashed into Ithor with the unintended side-effect of igniting all the released gases, and effectively starting a global firestorm.

In honesty, I think that the Yuuzhan Vong are one of the least offensive bio-races in sci-fi. They're shown to have weaknesses over and over, but their main advantage is concentration of power: since the invasion began, they were able to rapidly outnumber the Republic's scattered forces.

And, as Nom Anor mentioned in one book, if they had attacked at the height of the Galactic Empire's might, they wouldn't have even been able to get a foothold in the galaxy.

[Ender]

I think the first books of NJO were published before 9-11

Yes, I know that. It was just a passing potshot that I couldn't resist; the Yuuzhan Vong resemble Islam in many ways: intolerance of other's religions (replace religion with technology) fanaticism (Jihad vs... well... you get the idea)...

Actually, the Yevetha are a lot more similar toe Islamic fanatics then the Vong. That's one of the things that really piss me off about those books.

The YV are patterened after the Aztecs, and it is a very good representation.

[Ender]

[resident warmaster]

The primary technology to the Vong is gravitational control. They use it for communications, for sensors, for propulsion, for defense, and for offense.

Villips use gravitational pulses to send messages across lightyears. The problem is that most villips are directly linked to one another and it takes a special type of villip to relay signals from nonlinked ones. Yammosks use the same trick to coordinate from systems away, though they are usually brought on site for some reason not yet explained. In addition, it appears that slave implants can also recieve signals in a similar way, as that is how they communicated with the World Brains, a variation on yammosks.

Their sensors are also primarily gravitationally based, though there are also other parts. They are able to take extremely accurate (to the point of literally impossible) grav scans of ships. They can tell apart specific X-wings. They send these readings to an overall brain that will then interperat evidence, and certain things will trip it off. For example, Jaina Solo's Xwing is on a must capture list. Because Vong Warrior High command is keeping close taps on everyone in its society, their own ships are tracked in this manner. This can be abused, as Jaina showed when she used a mini repulser to change the grav reading on ships.

For propulsion, the Vong dovin basals will either use a singularity or small pulses for realspace drive and manuvering. Their ships are extremely agile as a result. For FTL drive, they appear to lock on to a soucre (IE planet, sun) and then use grav tehc to break the hyperspace barrier. Note that this is shakey, and is a result of the contradiction presented in Traitor which had the vong traveling in hyperspace instead of realspace.

For defense, the Vong generate singularities. These can be moved around to catch incoming shots. To beat them, you either hit an area they are not covering (as they are a PD mechanism), or overwhelm them (by either pumping in too much power, or by moving it around too much with stutter shots)

For offense, the Vong use gravitational pressure to compress material to the point where it becomes an extremely destructive plasma (GT level on cap ships, KT on coralskips) Note that the shots are said to be less then the shots of conventional ships.

[/reident warmaster]

If there is more call for an explanation of Yuuzhan Vong Tech later, I can go into more depth about it.

[Darth Yoshi]

Ender, are you sure that the Vong are based on Aztecs?

[Master of Ossus]

Ender, are you sure that the Vong are based on Aztecs?

Yes. Greg Keyes (writer of Edge of Victory) said so during an interview. He based them off of the Aztecs and the Maya.

[Enforcer Talen]

I always thot the yevetha were based on hitler youth. . .genocide and extreme racism.

[Master of Ossus]

I always thot the yevetha were based on hitler youth. . .genocide and extreme racism.

We were talking about the Vong. The Yevetha remind me more of the Maya, also, than the Hitler youth. Or, perhaps, of the extreme attitudes of feudal Japan.