So replaying Mass Effect has reminded me of something that has over time come to really BUG me about the whole ‘Stealth in Space’ sci-fi trope.
For those who may not be familiar with it, this is something that often comes up in ‘hard’/‘realistic’ science-fiction settings which posits that camouflage or the classic ‘invisibility cloak’ wouldn’t actually be all that useful in hiding a spaceship, as the distances involved even within ‘local’ space such as our own solar system are so mind-bendingly HUGE that nobody would ever be able to identify or aim at another ship visually, as everyone would simply be relying on sensors.*
Namely, Mass Effect being a famously ‘hard-scifi’ setting has one of the most well-known and explored cases of this with its ‘Hero Ship(s)’, the Normandy. A ship with a brand-new, cutting-edge stealth system that pointedly doesn’t actually turn the ship invisible, but instead hides it from sensors. Most notably in the way the ship can hide the heat-emissions that all spaceships HAVE to give off via massive heat-sinks.
Really, it’s pretty much a running gag across the trilogy that the Normandy CAN’T actually turn invisible and that ‘anybody could just look out a window and see them’, as Joker puts it a few times.
Now one reason this trope has come to bug me a bit is that, like a lot of ‘hard sci-fi’ tropes, it sometimes feels like it carries a subtle air of smug condescension towards the audience. Like the writer(s) just can’t wait to explain to the audience just how WRONG they are
However, the main reason that this trope has really come to BUG me over the years is that it feels like for all of its fixation on ‘realistic’ sci-fi, it so often seems to miss one CRITICAL detail:
That these ‘stealth ships’ are very often and frequently not in deep space.
Consider for a moment just what the Normandy is actually supposed to DO: a bit chunk of its role is supposed to be the deployment and support of infiltration and special forces teams.
Namely, on planets.
Where people could actually SEE THEM.
Are you starting the see the problem here?
Say you need to drop off, or more importantly pick up a team from a hostile rich environment quickly and quietly, but alas it seems your super advanced and more importantly super smart and REALISTIC stealth system has been foiled by a few random guards LOOKING UP.
Sure would be nice if your spaceship could turn invisible NOW, huh?
And now that I’ve noticed this, I really just can’t unsee it across both Mass Effect specifically and so many ‘hard-scifi’ settings in general.
I mean seriously, why DOESN’T the Normandy EVER have any kind of optical cloaking or even just camouflage? Remember how many times Joker freaks out about hostile anti-air across the trilogy? You know what would have SOLVED that?
Being able to turn invisible!
I mean, okay the SR1 not having it makes a certain degree of sense. It was more an initial proof-of-concept of the stealth system and they clearly hadn’t fully ironed out all the kinks.
But the SR2? You’re really telling me that super-sneaky Cerberus DIDN’T think to fit the Normandy with a tactical cloak? Or even just the shuttle?
Okay, okay, fine! Pre-indoctrination Cerberus were in fact a bunch of unmitigated morons who couldn’t build a taco-cart without it going crazy and killing all their guys. I can buy them not thinking of this just for the funnies.
But have you considered just how fucking cool it would have been if the ME3 Alliance refit of the Normandy came with total cloaking? I mean just IMAGINE the entrance at the end of the Earth Prologue with Shepard and Anderson cornered by Husks and we get the ‘Cavalry has arrived!’ moment from Joker, only with the Normandy materializing out of thin air as her brand new cloak drops.
You KNOW that would have been awesome XD
Anyway that’s my rant on ‘Space Stealth’ and one of MANY reasons why I think the obsession with ‘realism’ in sci-fi is a whole lot dumber than people seem to realize.
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*Notably, this is pretty much the entire narrative reason for the ‘Minovsky Particles’ of the original ‘Universal Century’ timeline of Gundam: An extremely useful fictional particle/element that justifies so much of the sci-fi tech of the setting, yet also just so happens to thoroughly fuck with any kind of long-range sensors as to likewise justify all the combat happening up close, ie; mech-fighting range.
