> Maybe they want to terraform the Earth-like planets > so they can > live there. Maybe the planets they've been living on > are in the > same solar systems as the human colonies, and > they're too > territorial to allow human colonies in solar systems > they > already claim. In either case, why wouldn't they > just bomb the > colonists from orbit, instead of wasting their > ground troops? > Ship-to-ship fighting and dogfights would make sense > in that > scenario, as humans fight to keep alien bombers or > terraforming > machines from their colonies, but I can't think of a > good reason > for ground fighting.
While the bombig from orbit point is a good one, the thing that immediately jumps to my mind is that these locations have some sort of strategic importance, and bases, supply dumps, forward listening posts, etc. And they may have felt threatened when another intelligent species parks right in their back yard. So while they may not neccessarily need or want to terraform (alienform?) the planets to their purposes, they may have wartime value beyond that. Thus, ground troops in spacesuits to provide ground security. Damon. ===== ------------------------------------------------------------ Damon Agretto [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum." http://www.geocities.com/garrand.geo/index.html Now Building: ------------------------------------------------------------ __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Win a $20,000 Career Makeover at Yahoo! HotJobs http://hotjobs.sweepstakes.yahoo.com/careermakeover
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