Sci-fi conflict casualties

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Conflict casualties occur in great numbers in many science fiction books, films and comics - often at higher rates than in real-life conflicts and sometimes higher than the current human population of the Earth. Such high figures can be seen in part as a reaction to the much higher population growth that occurred throughout the twentieth century, though ideas of one-upmanship among authors cannot be discounted either.

The following are estimated numbers of casualties in various science fiction worlds.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Contents

[edit] Star Trek

  • The Dominion War - over 800 million Cardassians were killed by Jem'Hadar forces when the Female Shapeshifter ordered the death of the entire Cardassian race. Another seven million Cardassians had already died in combat throughout the entire conflict.
  • World War III - Approximately 300 million people had died in this conflict, which had taken place sometime in the mid 21st century. About ten years after the war, Zefran Cochrane discovered warp drive. His first warp flight attracted the attention of the Vulcans, who made first contact soon afterwards. Within a century, not only had Earth recovered from the war, but had a unified world government and finally solved many problems that had dogged humans for centuries.
  • The Xindi Attack - The Xindi attack of 2253 had killed about six million people. These people died when a prototype Xindi weapon destroyed a section of land from Florida to South America.
  • Yesterday's Enterprise Klingon War - Over 40 billion had died by the mid 2360's in this alternate timeline where the Enterprise-C disappeared during the defense of Narenda III and the Klingons went to war with the Federation. The Enterprise-C traveled twenty years into the future. The survivors took the Enterprise-C back in time to the Narenda III battle, as a result this timeline never happened.
  • Borg-Species 8472 War - The Borg found themselves completely outmatched, incapable of inflicting any but the most superficial damage to the enemy forces. The Collective suffered catastrophic losses as Species 8472 swept through their territory, annihilating not only ships but entire planets, in their goal to wipe out every last trace of life. In the battle of Spatial Matrix 010, Grid 19 alone, the Borg lost eight planets, 312 ships, and 4,000,621 drones.

[edit] Star Wars

  • The Yuuzhan Vong Invasion - It was estimated that about 365 trillion individuals died during the invasion. That would be approximately 61,000 worlds with populations of six billion each.
  • The Destruction of Alderaan - The first Death Star attacked and destroyed the planet Alderaan. This resulted in the deaths of billions of innocent people on the surface of the planet.
  • Liftoff of the Lusankya - When the Lusankya, which had been buried on Coruscant, lifted off from the surface of the planet, it devastated over 100 square kilometers of cityscape. Millions of people were killed as a result.
  • The destruction of Byss by the Galaxy Gun and Carida by the Sun Crusher killed all the inhabitants of those worlds, many millions at the very least.
  • The Battle of Endor
    • 250,000 people on board the Executor were killed when the ship's bridge was destroyed. The ship careened out of control, and crashed into the Death Star. Despite the lethal temperament of Darth Vader, serving on the ship was seen as an honor and a fast track to promotion. Many of the best and brightest of the Imperial Navy's officers and crew were on the Executor, and died as a result.

[edit] Babylon 5

  • The Earth-Minbari War
    • Approximately 250,000 people died during the course of the war.
    • The Battle of the Line - At the end of the war, a large number of Earth ships made a final stand at Earth. 25,000 people fought in the battle. Only a little over 200 people were left by the time the Minbari stopped fighting.
  • Bombing of Narn - When the Centauri bombed the Narn homeworld using mass drivers, it resulted in massive devastation to the Narn homeworld, and the deaths of over 5 million Narn.
  • Drafa Plague - The Markab species became virtually extinct after the second outbreak of the plague occurred in 2259.
  • The Shadow War
    • After Captain Sheridan went to Za'ha'dum, the Vorlons and the Shadows began destroying the planets that the other had bases or influence on. These attacks destroyed a number of planets, and killed millions of innocent beings. It led to Sheridan assembling the younger races into a fleet, and forcing the two older races to leave the galaxy forever.

[edit] Universal Century Gundam

[edit] Legend of the Galactic Heroes

  • 80% of 2nd Fleet of the Free Planets Alliance forces are decimated at the battle at the gas giant Legizma. Most fleets in Legend of the Galactic Heroes number in the thousands of ships and are staffed by millions of soldiers, and the 2nd Fleet is no exception.
  • The Free Planets Star Fleet loses over 2,280,000 casualties and 18,651 battleships in the first ten minutes of the Fourth Battle of Tiamat, their assault on Iserlohn Fortress. The Galactic Empire is said to have been much greater.

[edit] Judge Dredd

  • The Atomic Wars - High casualties, the destruction of many cities and countries as we know them and the reshaping of the Earth's surface.
  • The Robot Wars - Millions of robots kill their owners.
  • Block Mania and Apocalypse War - by the end half of the population of Mega City One - somewhere in the region of 400 million citizens - and the entire population of East Meg One (500 million) are dead.
  • Necropolis - not as high as some previous conflicts, but still huge amounts of deaths (60 million).
  • Judgement Day - 3 billion are killed.
  • Total War - terrorists blow up a number of City Blocks, killing 4,000,000 citizens in the process.

[edit] Fallout

  • The Great War of October 23, 2077 and following nuclear winter reduces the population of the United States from 400 million to less than a million; It can be deduced that in China and elsewhere the death count is equally horrifying.

[edit] Battlestar Galactica

  • The evacuation of Kobol - while thirteen tribes managed to leave the planet, it can be assumed that the vast majority of Kobol's population, and perhaps the majority of each tribe, were left behind to die.
  • In the Cylon War, millions of humans were killed by the Cylons, both soldiers onboard ships of the Colonial Fleet and civilians killed on planets bombed by Cylon rebels.
  • In the Cylon Holocaust, twelve planets, each apparently as populated as Earth, were destroyed by the Cylon fleet; estimated casualties would be around 72 billion people, with less than 49,000 known survivors.

[edit] Terminator

  • Three billion killed in the starting nuclear missile fire, many more from the war between the machines and humans.

[edit] Dune series

  • Harkonnen War - Numerous spice warehouse raids and the final Battle of Arrakeen, deposing Shaddam IV; tens of thousands dead over a four-year period.
  • Muad'dib's Jihad - Ninety worlds sterilized and five hundred planets converted over a twelve-year jihad; at conservative estimates, sixty-one billion dead.
  • Return of the Honored Matres:
    • The Honored Matres destroyed many Bene Gesserit held worlds 6,000 years after the death of Muad'Dib - estimated casualties would most likely be of the order of hundreds of billions.
    • Rumours are abound of a great enemy from which the Honored Matres fled back into Old Empire - no details of casualties are known.

[edit] The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

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