Wraith ability to take Earth? (spoilers for The Siege & probably others)

[cobraR478]

From what we've seen of the Wraith so far, I don't think they could take Earth and hold it without bombing all our cities from space, killing billions, then defeating their purpose for going all that way in the first place. Even then, Earth would definately put up a fight.

We've seen that our little shoulder wielded rocket launchers can take out a dart. I see no reason why our fighter jets + f-302s plus all our surface to air stuff couldn't fend wave after wave of darts.

We've got plenty of nukes just sitting around for those pesky hive ships. (unless they have shields that we don't know about yet)

Guns are not a problem.

Many countries have large standing militaries.

The rebel Jaffa owe us a bit and are now probably in control of tons of ha'taks as well as the other Goa'uld ships.

I'm sure if the Wraith used the tactics seen in the Siege millions of humans would be captured or killed. But with each assault the Wraith would suffer large casualities as well.

What do you all think about this?
Would it really be worth the large losses for the Wraith?

[Tain]

Depends on what the wraith are capable of. We have only seen them attack/cull small areas and small settlements. We have never witnessed a wraith attack on a large heavily populated or defended world. The wraith could employ weapons/ships that have yet to be seen in this role. For instance, how do we know that the large wraith ships are not able to do large area stuns from space?
They have the technology, and it would seem a good tactic to use when facing such a situation. All the defense in the world will be to no avail if no one is concious to use it.

This of course is just my opinion, as we have no clue what those wraith are capable of

[cobraR478]

That's a good point. The thing is, have the Wraith themselves ever faced a large population suck as Earth's? Has a reason ever arisen for them to build a device such as that? Are they really able to develop a stunner that large?
what exactly does a stunner do, and would it be fatal if a blast large enough to take out a large portion of the population were to hit a person?

But yes, this is all just opinion and speculation and we really have no idea how the Wraith would go about attacking Earth at this point. But its still fun to try to guess how it would go down!

[Ouroboros]

If they came by surprise they could pull huge quantities of people off the planet with darts, especially from third would countries that wouldn't have sophisticated or responsive militaries.

We also don't know what the big blue beam of doom in Letters from Peagasus was all about. If they have some sort of wide area culling beams on their hiveships that they can use all the way from orbit well then, hope you're good at making fast friends with hungry bug people

[tomchris45]

Chances are though if the wraith came to the MW thru the stargate they would go straight to Earth. And there they'll go splat on the Iris. It is obviously possible that they could go to another planet in the MW. But they'd still need to time to rebuild, as the only ships they have which we know of, which can fit through the stargate is the darts.

[A Whiter Shade]

And there they'll go splat on the Iris. It is obviously possible that they could go to another planet in the MW. But they'd still need to time to rebuild, as the only ships they have which we know of, which can fit through the stargate is the darts.

I never thought of that. Maybe all the darts can be put together into a hive ship or something...
Like in Voltron!

[KingofAquitaine]

Unless the Wraith arrived in masive quantities (thats far more than one Atlantis - they want to capture Atlantis for its engine so im assuming theyw ant to fly here rather than gate) i can't really se them being able to fend off the entire space fleets of the Jaffa and the Asgard.

A "what if" episode would be great to watch tho, i mean we could fire nukes at them, but "the Seige" showed that the wraith can detect anything we see as stealth + in season 2 SG-1 the Gou'ld had no trouble shooting down missles so im assuming the wriath could too

[Tain]

Now this begs the question: How many wraith darts and wraith soldiers can be crammed through a stargate in 38 minutes?

[Cronus]

Unless the Wraith arrived in masive quantities (thats far more than one Atlantis - they want to capture Atlantis for its engine so im assuming theyw ant to fly here rather than gate) i can't really se them being able to fend off the entire space fleets of the Jaffa and the Asgard.

A "what if" episode would be great to watch tho, i mean we could fire nukes at them, but "the Seige" showed that the wraith can detect anything we see as stealth + in season 2 SG-1 the Gou'ld had no trouble shooting down missles so im assuming the wriath could too

I agree that they want Atlantis for the intergalactic engines on it. I also think they want Earth's gate address, which they'll find in Atlantis (assuming they didn't get it off of Sumner).

I think the Asgard and Jaffa fleets would be able to hold their own, but there are a lot of Wraith darts, even when there were only three Hive ships. They'll probably come with all 60 odd which would definately prove hard to beat. If the outpost in Antartica isn't out of drones then that could come in handy.

Also, if it came to darts in our atmosphere then the developed countries of the world should be able to defend their major cities. However, large numbers of people in developing countries and in rural areas would be taken. There are enough figher planes and ground to air missiles around the place to defend ourselves.

The only reason the Wraith beat the ancients was sheer numbers. I think if they attack Earth then they would lose this advantage as there are over 6 billion humans, and we have some quite formidable allies.

Overall, I think it would be a global disaster and any allied fleet helping us would be severely hurt. However, I do believe that we could win it and outlast the Wraith in the Milky Way.

Thanks, you've been listening (reading) to a rant by Cronus

[KingofAquitaine]

We know the jaffa fleet (assuming most of the gou'ld fleet changes hands rather is destroyed) would be huge so i think should it come to a straight fight a win wouldnt be easy but it wouldn't be costly either as there are more than enough death gliders to go toe-to-tow with any darts. Also the Jaffa have been fighting space wars since they were old enough to, whereas the Wraith have really only flown in extended shopping trips.

Earth's population gives us a huge war potential, i wonder, should there be full disclosure about the stargate and th Wraith threat, how many ships we could produce before they got here?

[jagowar]

I would bet they have some other weapons we havent seen yet (see that beam emenating from the planet in that episode where teyla and sheppard witness the culling). We still have no idea what that was for.

[Dreamin_of_Rain]

Now this begs the question: How many wraith darts and wraith soldiers can be crammed through a stargate in 38 minutes?

If there was only 10 millisecs. between each wraith dart entering the gate you would be able to get 22,800 through the gate in 38 mins.....give or take a few. Sound like quite a bit, unless my math is wrong.

I think that with the wraith culling the planets that the have been they would not expect as much restaints as they would surely get nor would they be expecting our level of techs. The Gou'ald didn't and they live in the MW. All in all IMHO I think the battle would take some time but the wraith causlities would be far greater then any other forces fighting agianst them.

[Darkhawk]

First of all we dont know how strong most of the Races in our Galaxy are...
The nox got their hidden city we dont know their tech.
The spirits we know their power but not their tech.
The hypridan we know their tech but not their power.

The Milkyway Galaxy is full of Ancient outposts that we dont know if they manage to activate the chair on earth and find them then we have a very good chance to beat the Wraith.

We know that a rocket can take down a dart good fine.
We could create new drone like rockets that are faster and smaller...

If the Wraith ever find their way to our Galaxy then they got ALOT enemys...
Nox Orii Humans Jaffa Asgard Spirits Hypridans Aschen(if they are alive) Tollans (if they are alive) the Optrikaner(3.19) the humans from 6.20 and the Goa'uld...
So we got some 1000 ships and the Wraith only 60...
Hard time for them if they mess with the Milkyway Galaxy ;D

[Tain]

22,000 darts? Sounds like its time to hop aboard the wraith train!



Though in seriousness, i think the wraith have superior tech compared to all the races so far encountered in the milkyway excepting the Nox, and perhaps the crystal skull aliens. The Asgard would not be able to levy any help, their civilization is in shambles after their near extermination at the hands of the replicators. I think the wraith combination of advanced technology (when compared to the majority of species) and vast number advantage could be enough to give the wraith the advantage in a milky way conflict. This assumes the wraith can actually get here, and are finding a way to feed of course.

[KingofAquitaine]

But as yet there is no real indication that the Wraith are more powerful in any way other than numbers alone. Think as a galaxy we could defeat them easily assuming they all didnt arrive at once and we had some sort of warning

[Dreamin_of_Rain]

unless the wraith sent their entire fleet the whole 60+ ships I don't think they would stand a snowballs chance in heck at winning. B/C while the Gou'ald are not going to help the humans they are certianly not going to let another race undermined them and take over the galaxy. W/ the collected forces of say everyone I think we could beat them.

[Darkhawk]

Baal lost most of his fleet to the jaffa so he has not many left
In reckoning wer saw MANY hataks and i think all got ancient enchanted shields from anubis...
Earth got 2 and plans to build many more
Jaffa got now most of Goa'ld fleet.
We dont know how many ships the Asgard got by now cause we didnt saw much of them in season 8.

We got now the chance to make our own Cullwarrior armor cause we got the planet where Anubis made them.

And if the Orii are really that strong and want to take over the MW Galaxy then they would destroy the Wraith.

[Ouroboros]

What a lot of people forget in these invasion style scenarios I think is that the quality of the Wraith tech was never their greatest strength. It's not why they beat the ancients and it wouldn't be why they'd beat us. Their strength is their ability to multiply like crazy both in terms of men and ships.

In the ancient war they went from primatives holding a single planet to a spacefaring empire that destroyed the ancients and held an entire (all be it small) Galaxy in less than 100 years. If they did it once there's no reason to assume they can't multiply like that again, only this time they'll be starting with thousands of times more resources and a base of operations in Pegasus (assuming they get the FTL engine) that will be impervious to attack from most of our forces save the Asguard.

[cobraR478]

That may be true, but do the Wraith value their own lives as well as the lives of their fellow Wraith? Remember that we will be fighting for our very lives while the Wraith may have a point where enough casualties may cause a lack of will to continue. They seem to have a survival instinct. In the defiant One, that last Wraith fed off of his crew mates.

[Darth Buddha]

Good points, but I want to address those dismissive of Wraith technology.

Sure, earth has jets, but these guys have been flying around the galaxy in mountain sized starships for centuries! That a shoulder fired missile takes out one of their fighters doesn't make them "weak". They may still be (and likely are) more than a match for any earth based fighter. In numbers, they give a puddle jumper a run for the money... on earth, I'm sure each dart would take out multiple of the earth's best weapons.

Besides, as they show up in space, their fleet could easily destroy all satellites, disrupt communication, and if necessary, bombard the planet from space with anything handy (if necessary, get some chunks of the moon and drop them on us) to soften us up. After a day of that, military resistance isn't going to be too stiff.

Moreover, the stunner point seems a bit silly when you consider that while we've come up with lots of weapons here on earth that kill, we haven't anything close to their stunners. It is far more challenging to STUN than to KILL. I'm quite sure if they can make directed beam weapon stunners, making something that kills is probably child's play. Hell, the "stunners" may have a higher setting.. set phasers for kill... or deep fat fry... depending on the circumstances.

I think anyone who thinks that the Wraith as presented couldn't pound earth back to the stone ages in an afternoon is just kidding themselves.