Forums » RP Discussion » Looking a feedback and input

In scifi game / plot there is a fortress. Imagine bunker complex built under mountain range equivalent to himalaja. This base acts as massive shipyard and navy headquarters of the nation that possess it. Also its built such way that conventional nukes, bombardment etc are totally useless against it.

Then war breaks out. It starts as coup and quickly escalates to civil war between nationalists and loyalists. Nationalists manage to take over majority of the army high command while loyalists take over navy and parliament.

Then loyalists do something. (And there I need ideas) this "something" is so big deal that foreign nation not only joins the war supporting the nationalists but is forced to use planet killer class weapon against this underground complex to end the war.

So anyone have thoughts or ideas what it would be that the loyalists have done or about to do?

One of the nationalists fighting principles have been until that point to end war as soon as possible with as little casualties to both sides as possible.

War crimes are bound to ruffle some feathers. Think of what sorta warfare/tactics/etc. are banned in the universe that you’re talking about, and do exactly what the moral consensus would consider to be too heinous. Let them use a type of weapon that has been banned for a while, or maybe an entirely new weapon that absolutely terrifies the whole planet/universe and gets them to wanting to be involved, since they’re afraid of seeing that weapon used on them in the future, or if they’re jealous about that amount of power and hope to harness it themselves if they join in on the war and destroy the people using it.

On the other end of the spectrum (or the same, since I haven’t given any ideas about who they could’ve attacked with the no-go weapon), go for an attack that targets a specific group. Maybe a refugee camp full of people that belong to one endangered species or religion, smth that hurts and feels like a personal attack on the foreign nation, so they get involved to protect that species/religious group.

If people have decided that they need to frag both sides from orbit rather than actually back the less awful side, it probably means that whatever has been done

-Isn't a one-and done deal but a continuous thing
-Cannot be stopped or reasonably contained
-Would passively propagate and continue to be a hazard or is fast and easy enough to intentionally spread that just noping it is the best move.

Things I can think of off hand:
-Grey goo: weaponized nanotech which either eats all organic matter it runs into or just all matter it runs into, using it to manufacture and replicate more and more nanites. If any of it sticks to someone or something that had been on the surface, it will spread to wherever it lands next
-Super plagues: What it sounds like, with similar "perpetual spread" risk to the above, possibly including zombification or something like it
-Monsters of war: Something like the xenomorphs or zerg, which will keep infesting and spreading and spreading and infesting, with a nice side order of uncontrolled slaughter in the process
-Mass mind control: Either devices which can mind yoink large numbers of people at once, or something that lets groups of mind controlled people also mind control others. Nobody wants to land and fight and run the risk of getting yoinked or hit by yoinked sleeper agents, so blasting it all becomes preferred


So yeah, that's my thoughts. Something where whatever was done/made is not reasonably containable, basically, and could just spread through any conventional intervention. Heck, even releasing a hostile AI could be an issue if it can crash infrastructure and spread to ships or fleet through communication network or something. There are a LOT of options, and all of them may leave lingering threats or hazards that can be fun plot elements for characters to run into later. ~v^