In canon, can Borg drone's shields adapt to bullets?

[Guy Gardener]

The Borg can adapt to anything, except species 8472, but they can't always produce a defense to every attack they have ever countered, over last 900 years, every time they meet someone new.

Even when they attack the Federation, again, they wait to see what Starfleet is packing, before they bring up the last good configuration that worked, or figure out a new best defence if Starfleet had thunk up something completely different.

They have a defense for bullets, it just takes three dead drones, before it's time to bring it out from their toolbox.

Also.

Profit and loss.

A question of efficiency.

Even if they have an unthinkably large power reserve, they still don't want to misuse that reserve and dedicate power to ineffective resistance. The wrong defense profile times thousands of drones, and several cubes, is a lot of power to waste outright.

Penny pinching.

Although what if the homogeneity of the Borg is Truly universal? If whenever they change defense profile for one drone, they have to change the defense profile for every Drone, whether there are billions or trillions of Drones spread across the Galaxy?

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

Penny pinching.

Although what if the homogeny of the Borg is Truely universal? If whenever they change denfese signiture for one drone, they have to change the defense signiture for ever Drone, whether there are billions or trillions of Drones spread across the Galaxy.

If that was the case, Phasers & Plasma Pistols wouldn't work anymore after the 1st time.

But every new encounter, the Phasers & Plasma Weaponry work initially for a while.

So I don't think the defense signature truly gets spread to every drone across the entire network.

That's a lot of data and change to be constantly doing, for a threat that they're not likely to encounter after the first time.

 

[Guy Gardener]

If that was the case, Phasers & Plasma Pistols wouldn't work anymore after the 1st time.

But every new encounter, the Phasers & Plasma Weaponry work initially for a while.

So I don't think the defense signature truly gets spread to every drone across the entire network.

That's a lot of data and change to be constantly doing, for a threat that they're not likely to encounter after the first time.

That's my point.

After the immediate threat has passed, they reset their attack profile to zero, because it's exhausting to have a billion drones battle ready for thousands of specific threats that have been dead and buried for 400 years.

Note how the Hanson's cloak was on file but the countercloak scan was not part of the Borgs standard scanning protocols.

 

[Richard S. Ta]

I would have thought after a short time they could throw up a heat shield to melt bullets before they impact.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

I would have thought after a short time they could throw up a heat shield to melt bullets before they impact.

Have you seen bullets shooting through flames?

They just mosey on through.

It takes some ridiculous amounts of heat and energy to stop a bullet midway through flight, even low Muzzle Energy versions.

The kind of energy that would significantly drain the energy reserves of a drone.

 

[Guy Gardener]

I would have thought after a short time they could throw up a heat shield to melt bullets before they impact.

That's again a question of efficiency.

Lead melts at 327.5 °C

How quickly does lead melt?

Lets say that one bullet has to be exposed to over 300 degrees of heat for 5 minutes to melt a bullet, even though it takes 3 seconds for a bullet to leave it's muzzle and enter it's target. So to melt a bullet in three seconds, after it's left the gun, but before it hits the target, which is you, your shield would have to be radiating 300,000 degree's Celsius, by which point the entire ship would convert into vapor around you, and you would be Borg overboard.

 

[Richard S. Ta]

All I know about melting bullets with a shield is Daleks can do that.

I didn’t do the math… sheesh!

 

[Guy Gardener]

All I know about melting bullets with a shield is Daleks can do that.

I didn’t do the math… sheesh!

What did the sontarans do?

They expanded the copper jackets so that they couldn't fire?

Or was it something to do with the firing pin?

In the Sontaran invasion of Earth in 2009, the Sontarans used a cordolaine signal excited the copper atoms in bullets and caused their expansion within a gun barrel, rendering Earth-made guns useless. The Doctor admonished General Staal for this, stating that "a Sontaran should face bullets with dignity". UNIT managed a counter-measure by using rad-steel coated bullets. This made the cordolaine signal ineffective and the Sontarans, despite their use of Sontaran space armour, were easily defeated by UNIT forces. (TV: The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky)

 

[IMC Headquarters]

"The slow blade penetrates the shield." I heard that somewhere... It just might work!

 

[thribs]

"The slow blade penetrates the shield." I heard that somewhere... It just might work!

Stargate I assume.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

"The slow blade penetrates the shield." I heard that somewhere... It just might work!

Dune!

 

[blssdwlf]

They don't really need to stop bullets because they can heal from any physical damage short of something hitting that instant vaporization plug they carry.

That's not correct about healing from any physical damage. We've seen Borg drones killed with bullet fire ("First Contact") and from first phaser hits until they adapt which is usually by the 3rd or 4th drone.

 

[IMC Headquarters]

I love how they just drop when they are when hit.

 

[Go-Captain]

That's not correct about healing from any physical damage. We've seen Borg drones killed with bullet fire ("First Contact") and from first phaser hits until they adapt which is usually by the 3rd or 4th drone.

We see them go down, but based on the episode where Borg nanoprobes are used to heal Nelix, and the Collective energy is used to heal Chakotay, those drones should heal after a while.

 

[blssdwlf]

We see them go down, but based on the episode where Borg nanoprobes are used to heal Nelix, and the Collective energy is used to heal Chakotay, those drones should heal after a while.

Ah, I believe you are referencing "Mortal Coil" and "Unity". It would appear that the key ingredient for the Borg to "resurrect" someone like Neelix is to have intact "neural pathways" and a time limit of 73 hours in "Mortal Coil". "Unity" adds a "backup neuro-electric power cell" capable of resetting an electrocuted drone after 5 years (assuming again that the neural pathways are intact and that they were drones.) The same episode, "Unity", also showed that they were unable to save Kaplan.

So, going back to "First Contact"... could the drones have been resurrected? Picard (a former drone) didn't believe so or consider it after shooting them. Or he might have been aware of the healing ability and deliberately damaged the neural pathways in the spines of the drones with bullet fire so they were no longer intact. No, I don't think they would have healed after a while, IMHO.