Bioweapons and Blair

[AD]

Blair was apparently "worthy" based upon the fact that he survived the Bioweapon when he landed on the planet (I can only assume he and the marines that landed knew the bioweapon effects weren't contageous as they seemed to take no precaution or quarentine themselves before boarding the Intrepid- but that's a whole other thread).

So this is that whole other thread.

While blair, decker and company aprear to be unaffected by the bio weapon, this in it self wouldnt be enough for them to not bring it back with them to the intrepid... mind you, just because we don't see them in quarantine, doesn't mean that there isnt some sort of scrubing system on the ship... some kind of precaution which could be arranged by radioing ahead. Just because it would choose not to kill them doesn't mean they're not infected. Sosa's converstion afterward seems to indicate that while they were not at threat of infection on the intrepid, they may have been on the planet. She says to Blair "If I had gone down to that planet with you, would I be dead too? Would anybody be lighting a candle for me?" It seem that while precautions/quarantine aren't discussed in the game (I don't remember how this is handled ind the book) The events as shown don't exclude the possibility.

Also, it doesn't seem that Blair or the others are aware of the nature of the problem on Telamon, hence the reason they land... Likely they werent able to open a comm channel to the planet, and the message Wilford relays doesn't adress the issue either.

There is the potential though that the bioweapon is too fast-acting. Once released into the atmosphere or water, or whatever, it infects as many people as possible and them dies. The act of killing someone would in effect kill it. Plus it may be that any nanotech agents that don't find a human host either run out of power/food and die in short order. It could be that by the time blair arrives on telamon that the biweapon had essentially died off.

Interestingly, scientist, while they take precautions for infection when treating ebola, aren't really woried about any major ebola epidemics simply because the rapid nature of the disease.

 

[luminon]

There is the potential though that the bioweapon is too fast-acting. Once released into the atmosphere or water, or whatever, it infects as many people as possible and them dies. The act of killing someone would in effect kill it. Plus it may be that any nanotech agents that don't find a human host either run out of power/food and die in short order. It could be that by the time blair arrives on telamon that the biweapon had essentially died off.

This sounds like a plausible explanation. We could look at it like a nuclear weapon which leaves radiation in the area, but in this case the radiation (or nanites) have a really short half-life and decay really quickly. I couldn't be sure though since I know nothing about nanotechnology.

I know in wcp, decontamination was a standard procedure after you landed, as you always saw the pilots going into that chute (I think Rachel said it was decontamination). Maybe since the Durangos are so old they don't have this equipment but we never see a landing scene in wc4 like we do in the other games so there's no way to be sure. I remember in the novel that the people who went to Telamon (Blair didn't go) never came back because they became infected and they realised it was contagious.

 

[Paddybhoy]

The short life span of the nanites seems most plausible to me as it makes the contagion a lot more controllable from the Black Lance point of view, they may want to exterminate 90% of the population with Bio-weapons but if it's contagion spread like wildfire the remaining 10% would've been ravaged the disease, starvation and isolation that would have followed mass contamination and would have perhaps lead to some other faction be it Alien or Human to step into the power vacuum the Black Lance was planning to assume.

 

[Aron Figaro]

Nanites, unless directly powered by something (probably feeding off of a host) would die off in a hurry simply due to power limitations...so that's probably it.

 

[Bandit LOAF]

mind you, just because we don't see them in quarantine, doesn't mean that there isnt some sort of scrubing system on the ship... some kind of precaution which could be arranged by radioing ahead.

I visited an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer recently -- even on a "real" capital ship there's quarantine rooms between the helipads and the rest of the ship that is to be used in such situations.

 

[spiritplumber]

My guess is that whoever designed the nanite didn't originally do so to make them into a terror weapon. Nanites would be very cheap to manufacture in great bulk once the technology is there (same as computer chips today), so in order to avoid contamination, it's perfectly possible that part of their programming is "if you land in a host that doesn't need your services, shut yourself off and let yourself be metabolized". My guess is that the Gen Select nanites are probably adapted from a nanite-based CURE -- instead of functioning as "if host doesn't meet healed criteria, match host to template, otherwise self-dissolve" they function as "if host doesn't meet healed criteria, fuck heir metabolism up, otherwise self-dissolve". Nanites like this probably were set to self-destruct after "work" as a way to protect trade secrets, even.... Blair and Dekker happened to be healthy enough to meet the GS arbitrary criterion, so by the time they got back to the Intrepid, the nanites had already disassembled themselves.

 

[LeHah]

Nice screengrab.

It should be noted that the WC4 novelization doesn't have them landing on Telamon - instead, they get an emergency transmission about the GenSelect weapon.

 

[Lazy Panda]

I visited an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer recently -- even on a "real" capital ship there's quarantine rooms between the helipads and the rest of the ship that is to be used in such situations.

Even though the administrators word is ultimate, I doubt that the Intrepid had enough room for quarantine left in her shape (some parts never got fixed in WC4...)

 

[LeHah]

I doubt that the Intrepid had enough room for quarantine left in her shape (some parts never got fixed in WC4...)

I think that something as essential as a quarantine facility would have priority, much like the problematic air 'fresher and wonky APU.

 

[Edfilho]

I never understood the decontamination chutes in WCP. The pilots go into those AFTER having contact with the deck crews...

 

[McGruff]

Deck crews are expendable.