History Main / OrbitalBombardment

* ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'': Season 9's [[https://youtu.be/rVgxiia_wsA "The Sarcophagus"]] has the Freelancers call in an orbital strike from the Director's flagship, UNSC ''Mother of Invention'', to get out of being trapped on a rooftop. The building is collapsed by the attack and the Freelancers are rescued in midair by a Pelican.

* The ColonyDrop and related forms are absolutely adored by the ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}'' franchise. To wit:

* The movie version of ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'' confirms that this is how [[spoiler:the Anti-Spirals destroyed the previous iteration of human civilization, and the Earth's surface along with it]].

* ''VideoGame/GalaxyAngel'': The first game opens up with Eonia's fleet using this method to attack Planet Traansbal and wipe out the royal family, including his own father the Emperor. We don't get to see the full effect, save for the destruction of the royal palace.

* ''Literature/TheOccupationSaga'': Tactical orbital bombardment is a standard part of the Shil'vati Imperium's playbook. The side with orbital superiority typically dominates most battlefields, to the point that the primary job of Imperial Marines is acting as {{Target Spotter}}s for the Navy. The Shil'vati are so used to using it that in ''Between Worlds Three'' the colonels of the first two Marine regiments are completely stumped by the campaign to retake Raknos-Three from the Roaches, where weather conditions prevent its use.

* In Michael Z. Williamson's ''Literature/{{Freehold}}'' series the tactic takes the form of blocks of metal that are dropped from orbit. It's first seen when the Grainne military is hired to [[MundaneUtility carve a gap through a mountain range for a new highway]]. [[spoiler:At the end of TheWarOfEarthlyAggression Grainne hits several major Earth cities with the weapons to force the UN to the negotiating table.]]

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[[folder:Film -- Live-Action]]

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* In ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'', [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-1514 SCP-1514 ("Star Wars")]] offers a non-standard example. If the SCP-1514-2 {{Kill Sat}}s do not receive the daily [[{{Telepathy}} telepathic]] signal from SCP-1514-1A (implying a Russian first-strike on the United States), they will attack and destroy their ground targets in Russia, triggering a nuclear war. However, they don't have WMD-level death rays, and instead have Xasers (X-ray lasers). Their targets are unspecified, but is strongly implied to be nuclear launch sites in Russia. Their destruction would ''absolutely'' wipe out all of Russia, making this an example of an orbital bombardment with weak power by itself but WMD-level effects due to their targets.
* The Creator/WizardsOfTheCoast website has a what-if page about a SpaceOpera version of ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' called ''[[https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/space-academy-lesson-one-2007-02-26 Space: The Convergence]]''. One of the sample cards shown is called Orbital Bombardment. (It's a sf-flavoured Wrath of God.)

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* The music video for Music/OrdenOgan's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNOgBVF17HA "Inferno"]] depicts flying saucers bombarding targets on Earth. [[BitingTheHandHumor The first place they target is the corporate HQ of the band's record label, AFM Records.]]
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* ''{{Franchise/Extrapower}}'': The method of choice for series BigBad Dark Force to soften up planets before invading. Happens midway through ''[[VideoGame/ExtrapowerStarResistance Star Resistance]]'' to the Shakun Star and early in ''[[VideoGame/ExtrapowerAttackOfDarkforce Attack of Darkforce]]'' to Earth.

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* ''LetsPlay/{{Mahu}}'': In "Second Chance", the Galactic Commonwealth never performs a planetary invasion without previously bombarding the world they want to conquer for a few weeks. Once the planet's fortifications are all reduced to rubble, the fleet in orbit continues to give fire support to the troops on the ground.

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Subtrope of DeathFromAbove, supertrope to ColonyDrop, usually less powerful than an EarthShatteringKaboom. KillSat is a specific example where the bombardment is carried out by a satellite instead of a ship (the primary distinction is that the KillSat can't leave orbit under its own power). This can overlap with a MeteorSummoningAttack. May involve [[NukeEm Nuking 'em]], and could be required because ItsTheOnlyWayToBeSure. Has no relation to an OrbitalShot.

* ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'':

* The movie version of ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'' confirms that this is how [[spoiler: the Anti-Spirals destroyed the previous iteration of human civilization, and the Earth's surface along with it.]]
* In the remake of Space Battleship Yamato, the Gamilas Empire used planet bombs to irradiate the earth's surface. The Gamilas Empire bombarded Alteria with ultra menace missiles, fighters, and fighter carriers that act as an killsat in an attempt to scare any civilizations that want to revolt from the empire.

* The Creator/WarrenEllis comic ''ComicBook/GlobalFrequency'' featured the threat of [[KineticWeaponsAreJustBetter kinetic spears]], weapons designed to be dropped from satellites, heat up on re-entry, and strike the ground with the force of a tactical nuke, and as hot as the edge of the sun. Part of a 'die-back' protocol.

* The ''Franchise/StarWars'' ''ComicBook/DawnOfTheJedi'' reveals that the desert world Tattooine was once a jungle world with large oceans. The Rakata conquered it and the people they enslaved rebelled. They bombarded the world from orbit and turned it into the desert we see in the films.
* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'' [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1942 Vol 1]]: The Green Geni get a kick out of finding planets that support life, and then bombarding them with nuclear weapons from orbit. They then have the temerity to act like the victims when the Golden Women SpacePolice force turns their own vessel into a prison ship for them.

** In ''Literature/ShadowsOfTheEmpire'' we have a mention of Darth Vader bombarding Falleen to ''save it'', as a flesh-eating bacteria had escaped from a research facility on the planet (one established by Vader himself) and wiping out the city and the surrounding region was the best way to prevent the contagion from spreading and wiping out all life on Falleen.

** The "Apocalypse" DLC is set to add [[EarthShatteringKaboom planet killer]] ships, and the accompanying free update reworks orbital bombardment mechanics so that each level leaves so much of the planet's population alive, Armageddon-intensity bombardment eventually turns an inhabited planet into an uninhabited Tomb World. In addition, empires with the Barbaric Despoilers civic can raid planets instead of bombarding them, abducting populations as slaves.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Stars}}'', orbital bombardment is the only viable way to clear out enemy population on a settled planet (colonists can just be dropped, but are usually slaughtered for any planet with more than minimal occupancy and mass drivers quickly become easy to counter).

* ''The Reality Dysfunction'' (part of the ''Literature/NightsDawn'' trilogy by Creator/PeterFHamilton). A special forces team floating down a river through enemy territory get some sudden and unexpected support when 5,000 precision-guided kinetic energy harpoons fired from a spaceship slam into the banks on either side. The harpoons are falling so fast no-one hears them until after they land. Then they ''really'' hear them.
** The Kinetic-Energy Harpoon is mentioned, although not used on-page, in "The Nano Flower" by the same author; described as a "poor man's nuke"[[note]]Just a big lump of metal with an ablative heat-shield, although you do have to factor in how much it costs to get it into space and then bring it down again[[/note]], they were apparently used in the Slamdown War. That resulted in massive campaign to get a defensive system in orbit, designed specifically to stop them ever being used again.

** Orbital bombardments come in various degrees, depending on the situation, whether it's supporting an invasion, targeting an enemy's production facilities, making a statement, or other such uses. It went on to introduce the Base Delta Zero, the only Imperial (and pre-Imperial) code not subject to change because they don't want anyone to get the order confused when it comes down, as it's [[ApocalypseHow a planetary scale scorched earth tactic]]. {{Fan nickname}}d "BDZ", it was first introduced by ''The Imperial Sourcebook'' for the ''Star Wars'' RPG. Interestingly, while it's been threatened several times the only known time in the Imperial era a BDZ was ''successfully'' carried out was in the backstory to the ''Literature/HandOfThrawn'' duology against Caamas, and that was by a mercenary fleet rather than Imperial regulars. How far it goes depends on varying factors, with [[WorthyOpponent Soontir Fel]] envisioning his ordered but aborted Base Delta Zero on Nar Shaddaa involving burned-out buildings, surface landings and mop-up operations, while kill-crazy guys like [[AxeCrazy General Grievous]] have liquefied entire surfaces of planets.

** In ''Film/AvengersEndgame'', 2014 Thanos annonuces his arrival in 2023 by unloading an artillery barrage of missiles from ''Sanctuary II'' that obliterate the Avengers Compound and reduce it to a pile of rubble. Later, during the battle, Wanda Maximoff seeks out Thanos, seeking revenge for his [[Film/AvengersInfinityWar 2018 self's murder of Vision]], and outclasses him to the point that he has to order ''Sanctuary II'' to unload another missile barrage on the battlefield (killing several of his own troops in the process) just to break her focus.
-->'''Thanos:''' ''[struggling]'' RAIN FIRE!\\

** In ''Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy'' Thrawn once conquered a world by ''bluffing'' them into believing he could do this to them by firing through their shields, at which they immediately surrendered. The trick required cloaking ships, Force-assisted split-second timing, and picking a target prone to panicking when they saw something that's supposed to be impossible.

In some science-fiction, it is impractical to transport enough ground troops to invade a planet or natural satellite, or TheEmpire simply wants to make a statement. So they bombard it with a bunch of [[NukeEm nukes]] or large [[KineticWeaponsAreJustBetter kinetics]], or EnergyWeapons of some sort. This bombardment may be limited to a small geographical area but more often it is a general assault that wipes out most civilization if not all life on the planet.

Subtrope of DeathFromAbove, supertrope to ColonyDrop, usually less powerful than an EarthShatteringKaboom. KillSat is a specific example where the bombardment is carried out by a satellite instead of a ship (the primary distinction is that the KillSat can't leave orbit under its own power). May involve [[NukeEm Nuking 'em]], and could be required because ItsTheOnlyWayToBeSure. Has no relation to an OrbitalShot.