A Deregger invents a weapon that is as small as a micrometeor, however, as soon as the Hungry Caterpillar system snaps it up, it explodes. While one or two are not, on their own, all that dangerous, he figures hundreds of such tiny explosions will do quite a bit of damage inside those things. -- Anon Guest
Clever people have tried to sabotage the Hungry Caterpillar before. Chiefly, asteroid wranglers who considered supremacy in the deadly art of stopping space rocks before they could cause trouble. They didn't always win and that was where the Hungry Caterpillar was meant to be a stopgap.
They took offense and went on strike. The people with the Hungry Caterpillar Defense System hardly noticed. Those without quickly signed on to get one. By now it is inconceivable not to have it installed as basic equipment. Of course, the rough rock-riders took offense at this and went to the next illogical step - sabotage.
They, like Deregger Nathaniel Morganstern-Drake, made the mistake of thinking that the 'jaws' of the wormlike machines were the operating business end. They were merely the containment.
What actually ran the Hungry Caterpillar was a force of nanites that even the B'Nari appreciated for their engineering and programming. They swarmed any incoming debris and began the process of molecular disassembly before the gigantic maw closed around the offending item.
Thus, any explosive device sent into a Hungry Caterpillar was rendered inert before it was trapped in the system.
It was even smart enough to recognise an antimatter containment field and leave it intact but eat the triggering device and any associated explosives.
People had tried it before. And even when it seemed to succeed, it wasn't that successful.
The closest attempted sabotage was in the earliest days of the system, when the rock-riders aimed a series of micrometeors at the Cruise Vessel Bismuth. Starting with several ones designed to incapacitate their new Hungry Caterpillar system. After the first two 'heads' exploded and the system scrambled to compensate, the backup drones issued out of the severed 'necks'.
Those were armed with magnetic generators and gravitic imitators made to divert the attack from the ship. They were cheap, easily printed, and sent out in swarms. These self-sacrificing drones shielded the ship and passengers from a certain and grizzly demise.
Not a single aimed micrometeor hit the Bismuth.
Deregger Nate's attempt was no more successful than the ones of the past.
Though on this occasion, the drones meant as backup were reprogrammed to trace the attack and return fire. So to speak.
If it's interesting enough to get past the best defenses, then you're in just as much trouble as anyone else. Yet another famous incident of aiming at the enemy and targeting themselves.
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / Gl0ck]
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