Was Garak right?

[Photon]

During Broken Link, Garak becomes enraged after his chat w/the Founder and plots (and nearly succeeds) at launching a phaser and quantum torpedo barrage on the Founder's new home.

Prior to his fisticuffs w/Worf he said there's enough firepower on this ship (Defiant) to turn that planet into a cinder in minutes. Wow

Now beforehand during the OO/TS attack on the former Founder's planet the Romulan helms-babe it would take quite a while for the planet to be destroyed by the combined fleets.

If Garak was right the planet was much smaller or the Defiant could throw out some serious firepower.

Thoughts?

 

[Haytil]

He was almost certainly exaggerating, which isn't surprising, given his emotional state.

 

[Marie1]

Garak is always right... :P

Or his purpose wasn't as "big" as the OO/TS one. He'd probably just launch a couple of QTs into the middle of the Great Lake of the Link and hope he kills as many as possible. The OO/TS plan was to obliterate the planet, all of it at once to prevent escapes, including the ones who really quickly turned into neutronium or something.

But short answer, Haytil is probably right.

 

[nx1701g]

I think that it was mainly exaggeration, but the Defiant did have a type of weapon that was unavailable to the Cardassian/Romulan Fleet: The Quantum Torpedo. I think that it could do significant damage in a short period of time. But I think it would have taken some time to destroy the planet.

Though we do know from TOS that the original Enterprise could destroy the crust of a planet in around 11 hours (though I'm not certain if that was from an episode or a novel). The Defiant could do it faster because of the updates in technology.

 

[psikeyhackr]

Destroying a planet and making the surface uninhabitable are two different things.

Wiping out all complex life on the surface should be sufficient. Maybe Garak just exaggerated but the Defiant did have the firepower necessary to accomplish his objective.

psik

 

[nx1701g]

^ And I don't recall saying that they were. I was just using it as a comparison.

 

[Timo]

The original Romulan-Cardassian fleet was able to destroy either 30% of the surface or then 30% of the targeted surface in a matter of seconds. Their hours-long estimates explicitly included destroying the whole crust and messing up with the mantle (supposedly in order to destroy really deep bunkers, a likely feature of any Trek defense system), and probably implicitly included doing it all while facing heavy resistance. Since there was no resistance, the crust might have been destroyed in a significanly shorter time, and the surface wiped of life in less than five minutes.

Garak probably couldn't have destroyed any deep bunkers. And he knew there were Jem'Hadar ships around, ready to pounce on the ship if the heroes made a wrong move. So he could hope for partial results at best. But he could also be calculating that even partial carnage of the local Gods would paralyze the Jem'Hadar for a moment or two, and allow for more extensive carnage, which would again help unbalance the enemy, and perhaps, just perhaps, the suicide strike would kill enough Founders to make a difference.

Factually speaking, and ignoring the context, Garak was probably right that the Defiant had the needed firepower. It's just that the ship could never have utilized that firepower efficiently: she could not have survived enemy retaliation for the required minutes, and could not have been everywhere around the planet at the same time anyway. In terms of sheer wattage, she might still literally have been up to the task, tho.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[bintak]

Bit of clarification. "Destroy every major surface structure on a planet in twelve hours" (Eminiar 7; Mister Scott) is not the same as destroying its crust which presumably means vaporizing a silicon and aluminum rock blanket thirty kilometers thick.

 

[Marie1]

But he could also be calculating that even partial carnage of the local Gods would paralyze the Jem'Hadar for a moment or two, and allow for more extensive carnage, which would again help unbalance the enemy, and perhaps, just perhaps, the suicide strike would kill enough Founders to make a difference.

I agree with your post, tho I imagine that in the even of an attack, the Jem'Hadar's response would be immediate, I can't seem them shocked to the point on inaction... they're too... quick to aggression.

 

[nx1701g]

Bit of clarification. "Destroy every major surface structure on a planet in twelve hours" (Eminiar 7; Mister Scott) is not the same as destroying its crust which presumably means vaporizing a silicon and aluminum rock blanket thirty kilometers thick.

Like I said though I may have confused it with a novel.