Out of the Dark (Weber novel)/Headscratchers

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • What happened to the submarines? I know there's quite a few other head-scratchers in this novel but think about it. IIRC the US, USSR, UK and France all have their own fleets of nuclear missile sub's - some of which operate independently from their main navies. Now, some of them could have been destroyed in the inital attack, but there should have been at least a few left over deep underwater or under the ice caps or something. Considering how unprepared the Shongaro were for facing humans, the last thing they'd expect to see would be a nuclear missile streaking up out the ocean to smack into them.
    • They're fully aware of the world's nuclear capabilities, and nuclear submarines are going to be tightly watched by national governments. The puppies managed to rip the entirety of the Pentagon's database and almost every detail of military deployments, with particular emphasis on nuclear arms. They'll know the general area the subs are in, and they've got to emerge at some point. And sub captains are not going to fire nukes off without authorization or at least a good idea of where a target would be, which would require them to emerge, squirt off a transmission, and pray someone somewhere feeds them a target. That's one of the shitty things about being on a sub; you really have no idea what's going on elsewhere.
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