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Assume you are an evil genius and have a huge (10's of Km wide) floating island fortress, previously concealed by phlebotinium. Of course your evil-genius-floating-fortress have several WMM (weapons of mass mayhem)

  • You are in almost all the most wanted lists on the world. After all, your evil genius pride demands it.
  • You stamped/engraved your face/logo everywhere on the fortress walls. Such megalomania.
  • You are running out of phlebotinium soon, and there is no way to replace it.
  • XXI century Earth does not know your fortress exists, but soon will. But they know you as an evil genius, and did I mention you have your face/logo on big banners everywhere?
  • You only have concealment to travel 3/4 the equator circunference (thus you can reach anywhere).
  • If you pop near the borders or inside the territory of a major government, they will immediately dispatch a strike force.
  • You are flying 1800m - 2000m high to avoid altitude sickness.

So the best plan is to get to a safe spot on Earth, get ready to defend yourself and do evil genius stuff.

Where on Earth it would be least threatening to the major powers of the XX century for such a fortress to reappear?

EDIT: I painted the evil genius gag too strong.

Where on Earth it would take the longest for the major powers of the XXI century to mount an offensive on your island fortress?

Lets suppose it happens by early 2016, and no major incidents happen from now to there.

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  • $\begingroup$ I am still new to the site, please redo the tagging as you please if you are a WB.SE veteran. $\endgroup$
    – Mindwin Remember Monica
    Commented Mar 21, 2015 at 2:19
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    $\begingroup$ Early or late 20th century? Antarctica or somewhere in the middle of the ocean would be most inaccessible, but once aircraft carriers and long range bombers are available, the entire planet is within range, and satellites will see the fortress appear wherever it is. $\endgroup$
    – Quentin Clarkson
    Commented Mar 21, 2015 at 2:42
  • $\begingroup$ @QuentinClarkson sorry!! meant XXI... correcting now!!! if it was pre WWII it would be a TPK $\endgroup$
    – Mindwin Remember Monica
    Commented Mar 21, 2015 at 2:45

3 Answers 3

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When your enemy can deliver a nuke or a special forces team to any point on the planet within 24 hours, you can't get out of attack range. In fact, going somewhere remote makes it worse because they can attack without worrying about the effects on anything nearby.

Instead, you need to set things up so they won't be willing to launch an attack at all. I see a couple of ways you could go with this:

North Korea. Make a deal with the local dictator, and any military attack risks starting a nuclear war.

Manhattan. Park your fortress directly above a major city. A nuke would kill millions, and if they try anything less extreme, you can simply land the fortress where it is, crushing the city. For extra evil points, blow up a few roads so evacuating the city isn't an option.

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    $\begingroup$ Ok. I swear if I can sell a script to Hollywood I give you 5%. Evil fortress island appears over Manhattan. Directed by Michael Bay $\endgroup$
    – Mindwin Remember Monica
    Commented Mar 21, 2015 at 3:32
  • $\begingroup$ I really do not know If I should accept an answer this fast on this SE, but I am still cackling five minutes after reading this, so here you go. $\endgroup$
    – Mindwin Remember Monica
    Commented Mar 21, 2015 at 3:34
  • $\begingroup$ @Mindwin ideally, no, you should wait a bit longer, even though this is already a nice answer. I'm not 100% sure, but I think this "rule" is just the same on every SE sites. $\endgroup$
    – Linkyu
    Commented Mar 21, 2015 at 8:18
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    $\begingroup$ @mindwin you can change your accepted answer should someone come up with a better one, but accepting one too early can discourage further responses. $\endgroup$
    – Rozwel
    Commented Mar 21, 2015 at 14:13
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Right above a capital city, Independence Day style.

They can not take me out with sheer firepower, because the risk of collateral damage is too high. When they try to destroy my fortress with cannons, bombs or missiles, the debris alone will destroy the city. A nuclear strike is completely out of the question.

Small strike teams are also not an option, because I could threaten to bomb the city or just switch off my gravity generator and crash it onto the city the moment a special forces team ropes down onto my fortress. I could even have (or claim to have) a dead-man switch which causes the fortress to fail when my control center is taken.

Before they can engage me, they need to evacuate the city. But evacuating a metropole is easier said than done. It might take days to get all civilians out, even when I don't interfere - but I will! I should have the firepower to take out all major roads, railways and bridges leading out of the city. That way I can slow down the evacuation considerably. I can also bomb any groups of refugees trying to escape the city, thus convincing the civilian population to stay put where they are.

Another advantage of close proximity to the enemy is the psychological effect. A floating fortress at the other end of the world does not seem nearly as threatening as one hovering right above your parliament building. This will ensure that they will soon start negotiating with me about their unconditional surrender (to be honest, time is likely working against me. I doubt that my flying fortress is indeed completely self-sufficient and can stay operational forever without any external resupply - which they will surely provide in exchange for being allowed to live a bit longer).

The only one who could stop me is that guy locked up in one of my cells until I come up with a sufficiently original way to execute him. But my guards are surely way too smart to let him escape and my beautiful wife is much too faithful to fall for his charms... I hope.

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Southern Indian Ocean / Southern Ocean.

Somewhere south and west of the place where they're looking for MH370, or where the Vendee Globe racing yachts foundered. While Australia is a credible military power with even more credible allies, they're not oriented to threats from the south-west.

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  • $\begingroup$ It's a completely different matter to find a 100m long plane or a 10m long yacht which is underwater, versus a 10km long island that is floating in midair. $\endgroup$
    – March Ho
    Commented Mar 21, 2015 at 12:56
  • $\begingroup$ @MarchHo, even if they find it they won't have forces (short of an American ICBM) in range to react immediately. The effective combat radius of aircraft is much lower than the ferry range. $\endgroup$
    – o.m.
    Commented Mar 22, 2015 at 8:09

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