Hardly. Imperium warships have energy weapons capable of instantly vaporising escort ships the size of the largest Federation ships. They shields capable of withstanding colossal levels of firepower.
Well, that's about as vague as one can get...
And they have one technological advantage nothing in the Federation comes close to matching:
Space Marines. One boarding pod makes it to a Federation ship, and its all over.
Well, except of course, for the force fields that cover the corridors. And officers with phasers. And transporters.
The scorch and burn tactics applied to their own worlds. Kryptman was willing to sacrifice billions of innocent Imperial humans. Do you really think anyone would hesitate to wipe out degenerate xenos loving scum and their alien filth allies?
Yes, and Kryptman as a result of his tactics, has been stripped of his rank and declared a traitor by the Imperium. For killing a billions of people, which was deemed to be the largest act of genocide since the Horus Heresy.
This is the problem here. When Sisko, Picard, and so forth typically act to carry out genocide, they tend to have actual political backing. When Kryptman did it to a scale of billions out of being pragmatic, he was stripped of his rank.
Did they follow through? No.
Kirk didn't follow through because he had orders otherwise.
Did they follow through? No.
Picard didn't follow through because he didn't want to use an innocent bystander as a weapon when it was determined that Hugh was no longer part of the Collective. He still would have committed genocide on the Collective given the chance.
Did they follow through? Well Sisko probably would have given the chance, but then Sisko is a badass and would likely be granted a place as a High Lord of Terra because he's just that badass.
Given the chance, yes, yes he would have. As would any other high ranking officer in all likelyhood. The fact that Captain Picard was chewed out for it by his immediate superior should have made that obvious.
Did they follow through? No.
Lol, actually she did. To the best of her ability anyway. She would have, but thus far assimilating 8472 has proven impossible. Instead, she just helped create a biological weapon that's easily capable of mass production that rips your body apart at the molecular level.
I'll grant you they tried to follow through, albeit not that affectively.
What are you talking about? They infected like, 99% of the species without even being detected until Bashir discovered it--and even then it was still kept from the enemy. In fact, that virus helped ensure that the Founder in charge of the invasion surrendered due to her desperation to save her people rather than continue the war.
And considering this is the same species that can turn into just about any material, including fire, fog, and light...that's pretty impressive.
See the Sisko Clause above.
He's still a Starfleet Officer.
Ooh they defamed a rival politician. You know what the Imperium does to rival politicians? Send in an Eversor assassin.
We're not comparing them to the Imperium in this case--I'm simply proving that they're not peace loving hippies. They only give that impression because they're more ethical than everyone else around them. But they're just as willing to get down and dirty when they have to.
Federation solution: Spend resources on a overcomplicated relocation attempt.
Imperium solution: Commence the orbital bombardment.
Again, not the point. We're not comparing this with the Imperium here. I'm simply proving that they're not all peaches and cream.
And all but Sisko didn't follow through. They may have teeth but when push comes to shove, they take the high road.
Except Janeway did, Picard would have (and was chewed out for not doing so). There's also a specific order in regards to destroying an entire world called General Order 24.
When push comes to shove for the Imperium they do follow through. And if anyone does back down, the Commissars shoot them in the head and make sure the next guy follows his orders.
So what? That doesn't instantly make them better than Starfleet--it just makes them more unthinking and obedient.
The IoM has over a million worlds. The Federation has a couple hundred. Any war of attrition would not favor the Federation.
Incorrect. Starfleet has well over a thousand planets by the time of the 23rd century. They have 150 member worlds.
It does not have to be a Trek version of Lend Lease. There are lots of minor powers and traders in the Trek universe who would be happy to sell the IoM some basic transporter technology, anti-matter and whatever else.
Like who? And why would they trade with a power that would preferably shoot them in the face rather than exist peacefully with them as the Federation has done for centuries? There's disliking another powerful country, and then there's selling them down the river for an imperialistic power.
The Ferengi would likely drool at the chance to expand their markets. And due to the disparity in numbers, the IoM does not need technological parity, they just need a rudimentary understanding of the technology and how to counter it.
No actually, they probably wouldn't. The Ferengi already see most humans as violent savages because of their history. History that's centuries old. The Imperium's yesterday was far move violent than that and you think they're going to sell to them? You especially think that they're going to sell to them when relations have been improving with the Federation? Do you think they're going to sell to the Imperium when they're effectively going to kill them all off given the first opportunity? Or all of their lucrative buyers? And what are they going to pay with? Gold?
Not to mention that Rom is the current Grand Negus. You expect him to embrace the Imperium when he's
served with Starfleet?
The question of technology is minor however.
It seems to make up the largest basis for your response.
And I question even if the Imperium could replicate it. They've tried to study and replicate necron weaponry before. It hasn't worked--in fact, they've determined it physically impossible to get the large, megawatt gauss weapons that the necrons use to work for them due to trouble generating that sort of power in something that small.
I mean...megawatts!
The phaser rifle that Geordie and Data were testing was shown to easily reach 1.05 megawatts and they were only impressed with the weapon's energy efficiency. The highest output of a phaser rifle is actually in the 4 megajoule range and they can likely hold that for several seconds as well. Then of course, in Enterprise, Reed managed to modify a phaser pistol to reach up into the range of 10 megajoules of energy to penetrate Borg shielding.
How is the Imperium supposed to replicate a weapon as simple and basic as a 22nd century phase pistol if they can't get a weapon ten times bigger to generate the same level of energy?
The bigger question is would the The Warp and Psykers be available in the Trek-universe?
The Imperium's technology and abilities still work in regards to the Imperium. But the warp can't reach into the Trek universe since it normally does not otherwise.
Because no Trek polity is remotely prepared for that. If The Warp is around, and effects technology as it sometimes does in Warhammer then the advanced systems of Starfleet are going to become a liability.
It doesn't.