Killer Cyborg wrote:SA 101
One of the Legion's most glorious moments occurred on Arctares' World, where the mercenaries were assigned to protect the evacuation of one billion people- just as a Mechanoid horde was descending on the plant! Despite being outnumbered a hundred to one, the Legion was able to hold off the mechanoids for 19 hours, the time needed to evacuate the refugees via dimensional gates. The Legion suffered only 7% casualties (dead) and 9% wounded, while achieving a kill ratio in excess of 30 to 1!
Something that people seem to be missing here. Note the numbers. (( not KC, but he's the one that actually went to the shelf and quoted the book
))
One hundred to one. 100:1 Ratio of invaders.
Now pause. That's a very very very low number of Mechanoids.
Now take it to the board!!
If the Megaversal Legion is there, with every man woman and cook that they have. They have about 100,000 to 300,000. That's including support. We won't go into the logistics of moving, feeding and upkeeping an army. For simplicity sake. Lets (( for this only)) Assume that every single one of them were combat troops ((ABSURD but I'm making a numbers point here, bare with me)) That means there were only 1,000,000 to 3,000,000 mechinoids there.
Now you're going 'Dude. only one to three million? That not alot where you're from?"
No.. it's not... not for PLANETARY invasion or destruction. Look at Earth. 29.2% of the surface of earth is land. which is actually pretty low when you think about it, but lets go with that number. 29.2% of earth being land. That equals out to 57.5 MILLION square miles.
So that boils down to one to three mechinoids per 58 -square miles-. That's alot of ground to cover. And alot of places to hide from the big bad b
In case you're wondering, and you take out the oceans and Antarctica, the current population density of earth is about 115 per square mile. so you're looking at 6670 people per 1 to 3 mechinoids if they attacked earth today, with those numbers.
"But wait!! read all the wayy to the end!! The ML Evacuated a billion people. Not earth's population" That actually makes it worse. Earth's Current population is about 6,840,507,000 people. So for sake of easy math lets call it 7 billion. 7 times as many people as the ML dealt with. So lets crunch that math. 16.4 people per square mile.
Now... one... to three Mechinoids per 58 square miles. Looking for 16 people per square mile. *shakes head* Makes that populace pretty hard to find I'd think. Lots of people can hide in a square mile. Finding 16 people in a square mile would be pretty hard.
Now I know... population density is nice to throw out as numbers but people don't live like that. They just bunch up. I know. i was just showing you how small the force the Mechinoids launched was.
To put it in more perspective.. the Mechinoids went to 'invade' a PLANET with a force.... roughly the size of the number of people that live in Either Rhode Island ( 1,052,567) To Mississippi. (2,967,297)
Pause and think about that for a moment. They're not so scary when you look at it that way. One mechinoid per 58 square miles.... They're going to invade a ---PLANET--- with numbers equal to the population of Rhode island?? The planetary population out numbered the Mechinoids 333 to one. lol That's if you're assuming the larger number of mechinoids. If you go the other way it could be 1000 to one.
I gotta say they wern't trying all that hard. One on one with the people of Rhode Island? Come on.
Now... as said clearly those billion people lived in population clusters. And the ML was rifting them out. But still, one to three mechinoids for almost 60 square miles? No wonder the ML ripped them up. It's pretty easy to take out three mechinoids per 60 square miles.
And yeah.. the Mechinoids are going to go around in groups too. But they still have an entire planet to scour.
The numbers if you look at them just aren't nearly as impressive as they look at first blush. Sure throwing around 100 to one!! and such. Look deeper.
Their kill ratio was 30 to 1. And they only lost 7% of their people to death.
So the ML lost 7,000 to 21,000. Pretty big numbers.. Kinda.
The Mechinoids only lost 210,000 to 630,000 Much bigger numbers. Much lower percentage.
So at the end of the engagement. The Mechinoids still had 790,000 to 2,370,000 troops kicking around.
If you do that math out, even at 30 to 1 kill ratio.
The ML lost 7% of it's forces
the Mechinoids lost.. a touch over 2% of theirs?
Now.... that we've taken that all the way to the end.
Yeah the ML and the Mechinoids fought.
No it wasn't a 'Serious engagement' from the Mechinoids side. Rhode island vs a planet? even assuming EVERY SINGLE ML was a fighter and you multiplied by the largest number the ML might have.. that's 3 million Mechinoids to take over a planet? Not a serious effort.
Nor was it a war. As other people point out, they were playing.
At the end of the battle (( 19 hours, doesn't a war make. it was a running battle less than a day)) the ML buried 7% of their force. The mechinoids buried (( if they do bury)) a little over 2% of theirs.
The ML didn't BEAT the Mechinoids. They lost almost one in ten men, RUNNING from the Mechinoids as the Mechinoids played around.
7% isn't HORRIBLE losses when you're outnumbered 100 to 1.
2% losses over all to take a --Planet-- with an attacking force the size of Rhode Island to Mississippi.... also not that bad.
Neither side kicked the other's butt. The mechinoids 'won' as the other group fled the field but it wasn't a knock down drag out anything. Even outnumbered 100 to one neither side had outrageous losses.
Now.. I've typed alot and tossed alot of numbers out to you, but it proves a few things. 1) The mechinoids were CLEARLY playing around. You don't take a planet with the population of Rhode Island, not seriously. and 2) The ML did well but it's not like they kicked the Mechinoid's butts. They only killed 2% of the attacking force. and 3) The Mechinoids aren't all that great either, as even with 100 to 1 numbers, their playful sadism, only netted 7% losses on the ML side.
So play up the fight if you like, but it wasn't a war.. and with only 7% loss on one side and 2% loss on the other, it wasn't even that horrible a battle.