How Could There Still Be Any Intelligent Life in the Delta Quadant?

[Ferengi Prime 5]

Between the Hirogen and the Borg, how could there be any intelligent life left in the Delta Quadrant? These two species hunt and destroy other intelligent life one by assimilation and the other by hunting them into extinction.

Hirogen should have run across the Borg centuries earlier because of their nomadic existence with the ability to cross thousand light years in 5 years. Once they meet the Borg, they would have met their greatest prey to hunt. Could you picture a small fleet of Hirogen starships hunting for lone Borg cubes like old whaling fleets hunting for whales.

 

[Finn]

Wow....Lol

 

[Ferengi Prime 5]

Wow....Lol

I am glad you enjoy the humor... in the extinction of intelligent life from the Delta quadrant... If the Hirogen had met the Borg earlier in time it would have been a fair fight...

 

[shapeshifter]

Plot Armor!

 

[Ferengi Prime 5]

Plot Armor!

Just trying to keep with the lore of the species... The Hirogen do study their prey before they hunt them looking for opportunities and weaknesses... The Borg were not so bad ass four centuries earlier... while the Hirogen were more of a technological force four centuries earlier...

 

[Ray Hardgrit]

There are 25,000,000,000 stars in the Delta Quadrant. Hunting down all life is going to take a while.

 

[Oddish]

There are 25,000,000,000 stars in the Delta Quadrant. Hunting down all life is going to take a while.

And that's a low estimate.

 

[Ferengi Prime 5]

There are 25,000,000,000 stars in the Delta Quadrant. Hunting down all life is going to take a while.

There maybe some logistic issues but I bet there is less than one percent of those stars have intelligent life... worth assimilating or hunting...

 

[Tosk]

Even if your bet was absolutely spot on (and I don't agree, but let's go with it), that means there's 250 thousand species spread out over a massive area of space.

Short answer, space is big and has a lot of stuff in it.

 

[oberth]

There maybe some logistic issues but I bet there less than one percent of those stars have intelligent life... worth assimilating or hunting...

you (are you borg or hirogen pretending to be a ferengi?) need to find it first, i. e. you need to set up patrols searching for life to be worth assimilating or hunting

 

[jackoverfull]

Space is big.

Besides, I don’t remember the hirogen hunting races to extinction. On the contrary, they should try and preserve races to have a steady flow of worthy preys down the years.

 

[oberth]

Space is big.

Besides, I don’t remember the hirogen hunting races to extinction. On the contrary, they should try and preserve races to have a steady flow of worthy preys down the years.

exactly, but maybe the eliminate them when they become boring (after 10,000 years or so)

 

[Oddish]

I'm sure that a suitable reason for the Borg's limited assimilation speed and the Hirogen's failure to hunt everything to extinction can be created, if necessary. That's what technobabble is for!

 

[MarkusTay]

To me, the Delta Quadrant feels a lot like the Alpha/Beta Quadrants in Enterprise - everything is 'scary and unknown', and so many species have encountered 'evil' species that everyone has one hand on their weapon at all times. Its a very 'old West' kind of atmosphere (perhaps Voyager was trying to slice-off a little of the despondent Firefly fans?) But I totally get what you are saying - you have 'space idiots' (Kazon), alongside some species that have tech well beyond the Federation (Voth, Borg, Sikarians, etc.). You also have the Biori, who simply disappeared (and certainly not the first mention of a 'slaver race' that suddenly vanished in ST), and folks like the Talaxians, who have far less advanced tech than Starfleet, and yet, can be found for thousands of LY around the Delta Quadrant. Like, how have those evil groups NOT wiped them out? There was also the two different aliens from the 'death by Snu-Snu' episode (Favorite son), with tech superior to Federation tech. I almost get the idea that for thousands of years all of them have been afraid to disturb the status quo, until Voyager came along and stirred the pot.

Oh, and you have the Vidiians, whom EVERYONE should have teamed-up and exterminated long ago. Those guys make the Borg seem nice (seriously, did that dude murder B'ellana's crewmate and WEAR HIS FACE to impress her? Holy Hannibal Lector Batman!) Too bad they never learned that trick with Transporter buffers (and they had superior transporter tech), where all you have to do is have an old buffer pattern handy. The Phage would have never been a problem. But then we wouldn't have gotten our horror-movie villains.

Oh, and as for the Sikarians, the Borg did end up assimilating them after Voyager left. I felt bad for them - they were just running the Delta Quadrant version of Risa and Janeway got all bent out of shape over that. She's awfully judgemental for a murderess. LOL

 

[Kor]

It's a little vague on when the Borg encountered the Hirogen. Seven didn't recognize the species when VOY first encountered them. But later there were Hirogen that were part of Unimatrix Zero. There's some speculation out on the interwebz that maybe Borg destruction of their home planet centuries ago caused the Hirogen to adopt the nomadic hunting lifestyle.

Kor

 

[fireproof78]

Even if your bet was absolutely spot on (and I don't agree, but let's go with it), that means there's 250 thousand species spread out over a massive area of space.

Short answer, space is big and has a lot of stuff in it.

Since when?

 

[Ferengi Prime 5]

On the contrary, they should try and preserve races to have a steady flow of worthy preys down the years.

NO, they did not do this for that is one reason the Alpha wanted Voyager's Holodeck technology. His people were being forced to travel further and further to find prey causing their society to fragment.

There's some speculation out on the interwebz that maybe Borg destruction of their home planet centuries ago caused the Hirogen to adopt the nomadic hunting lifestyle.

Humm... Everyone thinks the Borg is too "OP" for the Hirogen to hunt them but little lone Voyager came stand toe to toe with the Borg. I like to point out the Voyager was conquered by the Hirogen and imprisoned the crew and used them as prey. I just want to put that before the forum...

The Hirogen made their prey so "OP" on their holodecks that they lost control and where hunted by them. If this is true the Hirogen would not have back down from hunting the Borg. It would have been their greatest challenge.

https://www.startrek.com/database_article/hirogen

In 2374, a visionary Alpha decided that the U.S.S. Voyager's holodecks would allow his people to continue the hunt tradition safely while regrouping to preserve their homeless, ever-dispersed culture. Despite his assassination, a younger successor agreed to follow through with the plan and use Kathryn Janeway's gift of a holo-program's optronic datacore. Unfortunately, the Hirogen misused that technology and programmed their prey to be overly cunning and adaptive — in order to make their hunts more "challenging" — and essentially gave those holograms self-awareness and a desire for liberation. Three years after receiving the holographic technology, disaster ensued at several Hirogen training facilities where the prey killed their hunters and escaped to free others of their kind and find a home to call their own.

 

[jackoverfull]

There's some speculation out on the interwebz that maybe Borg destruction of their home planet centuries ago

Even the destruction of their home planet is just speculation: we know literally zero of such planet, it could still exist, fully assimilated, or who knows.

Humm... Everyone thinks the Borg is too "OP" for the Hirogen to hunt them but little lone Voyager came stand toe to toe with the Borg. I like to point out the Voyager was conquered by the Hirogen and imprisoned the crew and used them as prey. I just want to put that before the forum...

The Hirogen made their prey so "OP" on their holodecks that they lost control and where hunted by them. If this is true the Hirogen would not have back down from hunting the Borg. It would have been their greatest challenge

indeed the borg could be an interesting prey for the hirogen, but I see a caveat: a single drone isn’t much of a trophy and while many are a challenge they don’t make for good display. Hunting a queen, on the other hand…

 

[Ferengi Prime 5]

I found this from a Voyager episode; The Killing Game. It seems the Hirogen really do not know the Borg exist...

KARR: I've been studying Voyager's database looking for our next simulation. There are many to choose from. These people have a violent history. I believe I've found a worthy prey. The Borg. When World War Two is over, we will recreate a notorious battle known as Wolf 359.
The Killing Game

Hunting a queen, on the other hand…

It could be a ritual hunt sending a lone Hirogen ship to board a Borg cube and turn the Borg Queen into a trophy or relic... or have another type ritual hunt where the disgraced & dishonor Hirogen go hunt for a Borg cube to collect as many right hands, trophies from the Borg drones to win back their honor...

 

[Ferengi Prime 5]

You know that somewhere in the Delta quadrant on a holodecks. A Hirogen is hunting the Borg...