Domination of Equestria - T+32 - days.
It was a massive mirror.
At least, that’s what it looked like to the untrained eye.
To the trained eye, the practiced eye, the Evil Eye, it was a massive glass focus.
The focus of terrible magical energies which at a moment’s notice could be brought to bear anywhere in Equestria, along with a large swathe of the countries which made up its borders.
The Solar Eruptor, greatest of the Overlord’s weapons, perched right at the very top of the snowy, icy peak of the Canter Mountain, looming over the capital of Canterlot, gazing balefully across the subjugated land of Equestria, was undergoing its final mounting.
Ponies, changelings and all manner of other creatures swarmed around the small summit camp site, their sense of urgency fed by the imposing presence of their new Overlord himself, there to oversee the final preparation.
“Gulp...My Master, as you can see, we’re undergoing the final mounting now. Once in place we will activate the shielding runes which will draw power from the Solar Furnace below. At that stage, we are fully confident that nopony will be able to so much as touch any of the equipment, let alone damage it.”
The Forepony was wringing his hooves. His concern was understandable, the Overlord had been scowling ever since he had arrived on the frozen peak.
“Tell me Forepony, I don’t see the vents for the Furnace up here.”
“Um...No Master, they come out around half way up the mountain.”
“Half way up?”
“Ah...Yes?”
Was that bad? The Forepony was now very concerned about the Overlord’s scowl. Especially because it now seemed to be directed expressly at him.
“Mr Forepony, what is the range on those shielding runes?”
“Oh...well they’re designed to cover the entirety of the apparatus here on the peak. To prevent undercutting and improve efficiency it’s a close formed, shaped field. It should be around...four centimetres from all of the equipment?”
“How far down do the runes extend?”
“Ssss...well the entire peak…”
“So not the exhaust vents halfway down?”
“Grrr...no?”
“So you’ve left the exhaust port open to attack, is that safe to say?”
“Gulp...it...it...it would seem so, Master?”
Welp, good thing he hadn’t had anything to eat for the last six hours, as per guidelines when dealing with the Overlord. The Forepony was very glad, as he was certain that under that gaze he had utterly lost control of his bowels.
“You’ve left an open exhaust port which leads into the heart of my reactor exposed to enemy aerial attack. I find your lack of foresight disturbing.”
“Mmmmmm...Master, please, we can correct this!”
“Indeed you can. And you will. Split up that exhaust. Run the primary trunking inside the mountain until the halfway point. From there, you will split it into at least fifty smaller outlets no greater than a hoof wide, and scatter them randomly all over the upper reaches of the mountain. Also I want any vertical sections to have switchbacks and dead ends. I don’t want more than three metres of straight piping. Do you understand?”
“Y-y-y-y...Yes master!”
“And for the love of all things unholy get them covered by shielding runes!”
Overlord Rule No:25 No matter how well it would perform, I will never construct any sort of machinery which is completely indestructible except for one small and virtually inaccessible vulnerable spot.
Some beings can be very short sighted indeed.
The undoing of the Death Star
Death Star reference?
Although this is the same practice and principle covered in rule number two, (The principle of making your base and weapons absolutely impenetrable) this last line and the fact there is no mention of this weapon to be connected to the castle (at least within the chapter) indicate that The Solar Eruptor is in fact a different weapon than the one mentioned in rule number two.
~Leonzilla
He should also make sure there's no spacing between the shield runes that a small entity could feasibly fit through, and possibly also check the Solar Eruptor's targeting system can pinpoint individual bodies.
Yeah the exhaust port was the ultimate lynchpin behind the Death Star's destruction but if you pay attention to the whole battle scene there's also several other flaws mentioned that ended up aiding the rebels (the station's shielding wasn't designed to prevent an object as small as a one man fighter from slipping through, and the surface turrets weren't able to target a likewise sized object, hence why they had to resort to ship to ship combat).
That's actually really brilliant. I don't know why I haven't thought of that before. Then again I don't really plan on super weapons, being used by me.
To be fair, there was a pilot that got a shot off before Luke, Red 1, but they impacted on the surface.
It's only because Luke is a space wizard, clearly, that the torpedoes did a 90 degree turn and went straight to the reactor.
6711739
In Equestria, everyone is presumed a space wizard special snowflake until proven otgerwise.
Why the hell would anyone think of building some kind of superweapon that has an indestructible defense, and building the source of said defence OUTSIDE it?
Make sure you have guards that can hit what they shoot at, while you're at it.
6712612
* Please see rule 1
I would attach lasers by the exhaust ports, so if one buried the mountain under a pile of rubble, the lasers could blast new holes and not create exhaust build ups. A very unlikely scenario, to be sure, but isn't it always the one you didn't plan for that gets you?
Personally, I'd develop the exhaust system in such a way that superheated air is vented from them at all times.
Sneak through that, Snake!
7105482 Snake walked through a hallway of microwaves. I think he would be fine.
This reminds me of a fic in which the Emperor of Warhammer 40K swapped places (on purpose) with Palpatine. When the Death Star was being built he had it renamed for pro-morale, had the idiotic exhaust vent removed from the design, and removed the throne room with it's foolishly exposed window and stupid direct line into the engines. He also had railings installed wherever there is a drop, such as the firing chamber.
6712264
Both the rebels on Hoth and the Empire on Endor, apparently.
6711586
They fixed that with the shield generator for the second one. Nothing was penetrating that.
8199910
Where is this lovely fic?