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A question about Borg adaptation in TrekLit...

Joel_Kirk

Joel_Kirk

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I'm not a fan of the Borg, but the storytelling with the current TNG storyline has them looking like a threat (even moreso than the tv series, I think).

Here is something that may have been brought up before:
The Borg are able to adapt to energy weapons.

What was keeping Starfleet vessels from quickly using particle weapons? (Automatic handguns, shotguns, etc...)

It may seem archaic to the 24th century individuals, but it saves trying to recalibrate weapons while the new style drones are almost upon them.

Worf seems to carry his mek'leth(?) with him (I think in either Resistance or Greater than the sum when Borg appear on the bridge of ENT-E.

I would think Picard would use that to his advantage, because that seems to be an Achilles Heel....
 
Mission Gamma: Lesser Evil, referenced the crew of USS Budapest successfully using the TR-116 chemical rifle to repel a Borg boarding of their vessel.

So Starfleet is not oblivious to the idea.
 
I think you mean projectile weapons, not particle weapons. A phaser is a particle-beam weapon, using a type of handwavium called nadion particles.
 
You'd figure it would be easier to create a forcefield to stop a solid object than a wave/particle beam.
 
Projectile weapons wouldn't work. It worked in First Contact because apparently, Borg never assimilated a species that used projectile weapons (probably too primitive). Picard got the idea to use a gun in the holodeck because he had seen Lily shooting at them in the missile silo just hours before, and was walking with Lily through the corridor. Starfleet didn't think of that before. And he killed only two Borg with that. I'm sure they adapted after that.

And, well, in Stargate (I'm crossing over, I know), Gua'uld shields would be stopping energy beams and bullets because of their high kinetic energy, but not knives. I could imagine that trick for the Borg as well, which is why projectile weapons won't work, phasers won't work, but a knife will always work.
 
Christopher said:
I think you mean projectile weapons, not particle weapons. A phaser is a particle-beam weapon, using a type of handwavium called nadion particles.
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Tks, Christopher.

Yes, I mean projectile weapons...lol

JarodRussell said:
Projectile weapons wouldn't work. It worked in First Contact because apparently, Borg never assimilated a species that used projectile weapons (probably too primitive). Picard got the idea to use a gun in the holodeck because he had seen Lily shooting at them in the missile silo just hours before, and was walking with Lily through the corridor. Starfleet didn't think of that before. And he killed only two Borg with that. I'm sure they adapted after that.

And, well, in Stargate (I'm crossing over, I know), Gua'uld shields would be stopping energy beams and bullets because of their high kinetic energy, but not knives. I could imagine that trick for the Borg as well, which is why projectile weapons won't work, phasers won't work, but a knife will always work.
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Hmmm....

Ó Méith said:
Mission Gamma: Lesser Evil, referenced the crew of USS Budapest successfully using the TR-116 chemical rifle to repel a Borg boarding of their vessel.

So Starfleet is not oblivious to the idea.
Click to expand...

Cool...!
 
Bear in mind that in BOBW part 1 they'd fitted Picard/Locutus with a forcefield that knocked Worf back when he ran at him too quickly - so I presume that they have the capability to defend against physical projectiles, though (given that they can snatch Locutus in BOBW II) they may have a minimum energy threshold so that something slow enough might make it through. But if you're close enough and slow enough to get through, you've already been assimilated...
 
In every episode to feature the Borg we see just how quickly they adapt to phaser fire so it was perplexing/infuriating to see Starfleet despatch away teams to the cubes during the recent Borg unpleasantness.Those security officers might as well be armed with muskets,making those away missions little more than suicide runs.
Also in recent threads regarding the Destiny conflict,it was argued that the Borg would eventually adapt to weapons like the thalaron device.Not to reopen that debate but I'm really not buying that argument.I believe that some technologies are too devastating to counteract.Has Picard ever considered simply beaming a tactical nuke onto a cube?Outside of erecting a containment field around it,how do you counteract that?Maybe a field that could contain a warp field would work,but then beam over 2-3 more bombs.
Am I off about this?
 
wait for me to finish my Destiny-tie in fan-fic Ragnarok, coming soonish. they use TR-117s in that (a full auto version of the -116)

or read my existing fan-fic 'Special Operations Part 5: Reflections' for a trip into an alternate Borg-dominated reality, from whence the TR-117 originates...
 
The Borg don't have to adapt to nuclear weapons. They just have to learn to use transporter-blocking shields, like pretty much everyone else in Trek uses, so nobody can beam the nukes in.
 
The present day US Army is already shooting down mortar shells with lasers, and we've successfully tested a system that uses interceptor projectiles to destroy incoming RPGs.

The Borg, using force fields, tractor beams and pinpoint transporter technology would have zero trouble adapting to defend against projectile weapons.

Now, if you added in some sort of energy dampening field...in conjunction with projectile weapons, you might have something. Oh wait, that has already happened in Trek Lit.

The Borg would still adapt eventually however. There are all sorts of interesting armor options being developed in the present day. Everything from reactive explosive panels that blow outward, to liquids that harden at a point of impact.
 
Didn't the Aventine's crew also use the TR-116 at some point in the Destiny trilogy against the Borg?
 
^^ They did, though all the people on the cube also carried Hirogen energy dampners and the Aventine projected a dampner field over the Borg ship to "suppress the ship's regenerative capacity".

So while that worked, I suppose it might not have worked as well if they only boarded with the TR-116s and no dampner fields to affect the Borg.
 
Steve Roby said:
The Borg don't have to adapt to nuclear weapons. They just have to learn to use transporter-blocking shields, like pretty much everyone else in Trek uses, so nobody can beam the nukes in.
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I've never seen any Starfleet personnel have any difficulty beaming on or off Borg cubes.
And those stealth suits from Insurrection,any reason why these aren't issued to security teams on hazardous missions?(Yeah,yeah..useless against the Borg,you'll argue but please lets not make the Borg too invincible,theoretically they might even be able to adapt to the power of Q).
 
^
I always thought that line "DON'T PROVOKE THE BORG!", was meant to convey the fact that given the Borg's ability to disrupt civilizations on a galactic scale, the Q did not want to be responsible for them going completely berserk (like in Destiny). Or perhaps since Q knew what was coming, he didn't want q to...speed-up the process? :D
 
One thing that always bothered me is that in the opening seconds of the two-part Voyager episode 'Dark Frontier', Voyager beams a photon torpedo onto a Borg scoutship to blow it up. But they never use this tactic again, not once. Even though the Borg generally do not react to individuals or objects beaming onboard their ships unless the Queen is aware of the threat.
 
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