[Submitted] Museum Piece Threatens to Kill Us All

[Annihilators of Chan Island]

A construction crew in the centre of @@CAPITAL@@ have just discovered a chilling find: an rusted old bomber from the Maxtopian War decades ago... carrying a primed and ready 10000kg bomb!

validity: all

[option] "Get rid of it!!" cries movie enthusiast @@RANDOMNAME@@ from under your desk. "Get a bomb disposal team on there NOW! I'm positive they'll know how to defuse thing, it's cutting the red wire right?! Please, SAVE US @@LEADER@@!
[effect] the 24 hour newscylce is worshipping bomb disposal units as saviours of @@CAPITAL@@.

[option] "And how do you think that's going to work?" shouts @@RANDOMNAME@@, the ordnance expert you happened to have on speed dial."The best way of handling such unexploded bombs is to, well, explode them. The bomb is so badly rusted that we can't dare move it to a safe place, so obviously @@CAPITAL@@ will have to be evacuated. We'll have to prepare a pretty hefty cheque for the rebuilding, considering such a bomb is likely to cause a small earthquake, but better safely detonated than sitting in the earth."
[effect] the controlled bombing of @@CAPITAL@@ is a viral sensation

[option] "That's a hare-brained idea just because of the explosive unpopularity it would cause" notes professor @@RANDOMNAME@@ from the University of @@CURRENCY@@ville, many miles away from @@CAPITAL@@. "But there is much we could learn from this bomber. How did it get there? Who was the crew? What was their mission? Such a plane could be a veritable treasure trove of information and I'll bet my team is the team to see to it! Even if it's rusted almost beyond use!"
[effect] history students are poking ancient ordnance for fun

[option] "Nobody needs to know about this." states construction worker @@RANDOMNAME@@, weary of bad publicity."My team and I won't tell anyone, I promise. We can just rebury the plane alongside the records and we can shut up. We can then all live in blissful ignorance and have life continue as usual.
[effect] the government asserts that claims it covers up unexploded ordnance are urban legends.

[Leppikania]

...and why can't the bombs be set off in a remote area, maybe a bomb range? Also, why does the bomber have several nukes, when just one can level a city? (they're pretty heavy, too)
Nevertheless, a bomber's bombs should actually be trivially easy to disarm, because it's difficult to disarm a bomb on its way to the ground.

[Maljaratas]

I will echo the above poster. Also, unless your country is crazy, nuclear weapons are inherently fail-safe, meaning they do not just go off.

[Annihilators of Chan Island]

...and why can't the bombs be set off in a remote area, maybe a bomb range? Also, why does the bomber have several nukes, when just one can level a city? (they're pretty heavy, too)
Nevertheless, a bomber's bombs should actually be trivially easy to disarm, because it's difficult to disarm a bomb on its way to the ground.

I will echo the above poster. Also, unless your country is crazy, nuclear weapons are inherently fail-safe, meaning they do not just go off.

Both good points. I'll add a few words noting that they have severely degraded. Even the most failsafe bomb risks going off randomly after a couple of decades of decay.

A bomber's bombs are fairly easy to disarm, but after 70 years of degradation it's much harder than that. Relatively recently one set off killing some of the experts assigned to disarm it.

As for how many bombs... yeah, it definately would only need one. Consider it edited.

[Leppikania]

One more thing, if there was a Maxtopian war that implies the country has a military.

[Candlewhisper Archive]

Disagree with that, its not stated explicitly that the Maxtopian War involved the home nation. My main nation has no military and has never been to war, but I can still see a crashed bomber might have ended up there.

[Trotterdam]

Both good points. I'll add a few words noting that they have severely degraded. Even the most failsafe bomb risks going off randomly after a couple of decades of decay.

The most failsafe conventional bombs, yes. Nuclear explosions are inherently difficult to set off.

It takes some very exact timing to cause a nuke to go off. Even if you set off another bomb right next to the nuke, it won't cause a chain reaction.

A bomber's bombs are fairly easy to disarm, but after 70 years of degradation it's much harder than that. Relatively recently one set off killing some of the experts assigned to disarm it.

I asume you mean a conventional bomb, since if someone had accidentally set off a nuke I'm sure I would have heard about it.

Nuclear bombs work on entirely different principles from chemical ones. The same considerations do not apply.

[Candlewhisper Archive]

Shame, because the "controlled nuking" line is a good one.

Would it be worth smudging it a bit to allow suspension of disbelief? Perhaps instead of a "nuclear bomb" you could make it a "radiological dispersal device, otherwise known as a Dirty Bomb". Still, I'm not sure that would be called "nuking". That would still allow for an effect line of "the controlled irradiation of @@CAPITAL@@..."

[Annihilators of Chan Island]

I've edited it to be a conventional bomb (of roughly the same weight of the historically used Gland Slam Bomb. Shame, not as exciting as a nuke but located in the centre of a city pretty capable of a lot of damage.

Anything else?

[Bears Armed]

Also, why does the bomber have several nukes, when just one can level a city? (they're pretty heavy, too)

Well, in RL at one time, the USA's B-52 ('Stratofortress') was adapted to carry 20 nuclear air-to-surface missiles...

[Candlewhisper Archive]

I've edited it to be a conventional bomb (of roughly the same weight of the historically used Gland Slam Bomb. Shame, not as exciting as a nuke but located in the centre of a city pretty capable of a lot of damage.

Anything else?

I note option 3 had a lot of nuclear-related puns. Maybe revisit the wording here?

[Annihilators of Chan Island]

I've edited it to be a conventional bomb (of roughly the same weight of the historically used Gland Slam Bomb. Shame, not as exciting as a nuke but located in the centre of a city pretty capable of a lot of damage.

Anything else?

I note option 3 had a lot of nuclear-related puns. Maybe revisit the wording here?

Re-worded it to exclude nuclear based puns.

Anything else?

[Flanderlion]

information and I'll bet vet my team is the team to see to it!

Quick spelling error, but I'm liking this so far.

[Annihilators of Chan Island]

information and I'll bet vet my team is the team to see to it!

Quick spelling error, but I'm liking this so far.

Oops, didn't see this. Just when I was going to submit this issue too!

Well, edited.