Boba Fett hired to capture Locutus

[Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman]

OK, Picard is captured by the Borg and converted into Locutus. The Federation is desperated to get Picard back, then they turn to Boba Fett, hiring the bounty hunter to capture Picard *ALIVE* and bring him safely to Earth.

The bounty hunter is on his own; the only help he gets from the Feds is merely the information that indicates the location of the cube carrying Locutus (ergo: no support from USS Enterprise or such).

Could he accomplish his mission? Also, if you're Boba Fett, what is the best way (most cost-effective, within the shortest timespan as possible, etc) to get Picard alive?

[NecronLord]

Err... Yes, yes he can, just as the Enterprise crew did. However, given that he can't teleport abord the cube, he's going to need vast amounts of extra ammo for all those hundreds of thousands of drones.

Then he can spitefully vape the cube with one of his mines.

[Rogue 9]

However, given that he can't teleport abord the cube, he's going to need vast amounts of extra ammo for all those hundreds of thousands of drones.

Will he? They won't see him as a threat until he starts breaking things.

[Darth Wong]

Borg drones can survive in vacuum. If Fett knows this, he can simply but the cube into pieces with some well-placed seismic charges and then try to pick up Locutus in space.

Failing that, I suppose he could try to nail it with ion cannon fire until its operability is so badly degraded that he can board the ship and fight his way to Locutus' position, but it might blow up first.

Without the plot device of a transporter device which the Borg are mysteriously unable to interdict, jam, or otherwise impede despite their superior knowledge and prior intel , it would be pretty tricky to get Locutus alive. Mind you, given Boba's history he might just go for the easy disintegration

[Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman]

Borg drones can survive in vacuum. If Fett knows this, he can simply but the cube into pieces with some well-placed seismic charges and then try to pick up Locutus in space.

But there is the risk that Locutus will blow up into pieces as wel.

Failing that, I suppose he could try to nail it with ion cannon fire until its operability is so badly degraded that he can board the ship and fight his way to Locutus' position, but it might blow up first.

Without the plot device of a transporter device which the Borg are mysteriously unable to interdict, jam, or otherwise impede despite their superior knowledge and prior intel , it would be pretty tricky to get Locutus alive. Mind you, given Boba's history he might just go for the easy disintegration

Indeed. That's why the mission is to capture Locutus alive. If he's only hired to disintegrate Locutus then all would be much too easy.

[Metrion Cascade]

Borg drones can survive in vacuum. If Fett knows this, he can simply but the cube into pieces with some well-placed seismic charges and then try to pick up Locutus in space.

Failing that, I suppose he could try to nail it with ion cannon fire until its operability is so badly degraded that he can board the ship and fight his way to Locutus' position, but it might blow up first.

Without the plot device of a transporter device which the Borg are mysteriously unable to interdict, jam, or otherwise impede despite their superior knowledge and prior intel , it would be pretty tricky to get Locutus alive. Mind you, given Boba's history he might just go for the easy disintegration

Do we know that Borg were able to survive in vacuum when Locutus was made? They may have gained that ability before FC.

And why would the Borg try to stop him anyway? They let the E-D crew walk around unimpeded until the shooting started. Unless they're actively scanning the interior of their ship at all times, chances are they won't notice how uber his tech is. And he may be able to fool their sensors even when they're scanning his ship.

[Robert Walper]

Without the plot device of a transporter device which the Borg are mysteriously unable to interdict, jam, or otherwise impede despite their superior knowledge and prior intel ,

Just a nitpick, but did you forget that the Borg in BOBW adapted their EM field to prevent main transporter function? This resulted in Data and Worf having to penetrate the EM field with a shuttlecraft in order to use the shuttle's onboard transporter to get to the cube, and that was only accomplished by virtue of blinding the Borg sensors with an anti-matter spread.

Furthermore, future episodes showed the Borg apparently having adapted to personnel transporting onboard their vessels. Reference STVOY "Scorpion", where the crew of Voyager was desperate to get Janeway back after being taken aboard the Borg cube. According to Torres, the Borg were "scattering the beam". They couldn't do so even when the cube's shields were weakening by a direct Species 8472 attack.

Reference STVOY "Unimatrix Zero", where again the Voyager crew was unable to bypass Borg shielding to bring back Janeway, Torres and Tuvok inside of the tactical cube. They only did so once the cube had initiated self destruct and pulled them out at the last second.

Reference also STVOY "Dark Frontier", where Paris couldn't get a lock onto Janeway and Seven of Nine inside of the Borg Unicomplex...again, due to Borg interference.

It's possible that the Borg had simply never encountered a enemy before that willingly transported into their vessels and commenced wandering around gawking.

[Metrion Cascade]

Why didn't the E-D crew (or the fleet at Wolf 359) try beaming some photorps aboard?

[atkindave]

I don't think the borg will let Boba wander around like that. During their first meeting, the Borg were very interested in the Enterprise. During subsequent meetings they were less interested in Enterprise's tech and more destructive, looking to assimilate the crew. Perhaps they learned all they needed/wanted during their first encounter?

I pose that the borg will try to examine Slave-1 and Boba's armor for technology they can use (and while they're at it they could try to assimilate Boba).

You guys figure out who'd win.

[Ghost Rider]

All in all it's still amazing that they still didn't interedict a Transporter beam even under the shield.

All the other points are them trying to transport something through the shield.

And proof, Robert that the Surviving in the vacuum is a new thing?

[Robert Walper]

And proof, Robert that the Surviving in the vacuum is a new thing?

Excuse me? Where did I even mention a single word about the Borg's ability to survive in a vacuum?

[Robert Walper]

Why didn't the E-D crew (or the fleet at Wolf 359) try beaming some photorps aboard?

We know the Enterprise didn't try this, but we can't say for certain that the fleet at Wolf 359 didn't try this tactic.

If we were to assume they did, obviously the Borg must have adapted or previously rendered that tactic ineffective.

However, employing SD.net Trek Bashing(TM), we can conclude the simplest theory is that the Federation fleet and commanders were simply too stupid.

[Ghost Rider]

And proof, Robert that the Surviving in the vacuum is a new thing?

Excuse me? Where did I even mention a single word about the Borg's ability to survive in a vacuum?

Sorry, meant Metrion.

[Enola Straight]

And the Feds are going to pay in with...?

[Dartzap]

And the Feds are going to pay in with...?

Orion Slave Girls

[The Kernel]

Why didn't the E-D crew (or the fleet at Wolf 359) try beaming some photorps aboard?

We know the Enterprise didn't try this, but we can't say for certain that the fleet at Wolf 359 didn't try this tactic.

If we were to assume they did, obviously the Borg must have adapted or previously rendered that tactic ineffective.

However, employing SD.net Trek Bashing(TM), we can conclude the simplest theory is that the Federation fleet and commanders were simply too stupid.

Didn't Janeway use this tactic in Dark Frontier?

[Robert Walper]

Why didn't the E-D crew (or the fleet at Wolf 359) try beaming some photorps aboard?

We know the Enterprise didn't try this, but we can't say for certain that the fleet at Wolf 359 didn't try this tactic.

If we were to assume they did, obviously the Borg must have adapted or previously rendered that tactic ineffective.

However, employing SD.net Trek Bashing(TM), we can conclude the simplest theory is that the Federation fleet and commanders were simply too stupid.

Didn't Janeway use this tactic in Dark Frontier?

Yes, however this required Voyager to drop the Borg probe's shields.

[General Zod]

seeing that lowering an enemy's shields is typically problematic at best, it's doubtful that the captains of the ships at wolf 359 would have even considered the strategy of beaming in torpedoes. It's not really something you can cook up during the heat of battle. The Borg were also relative unknowns, so the Federation wasn't entirely aware of their abilities or weaknesses.

[Robert Walper]

seeing that lowering an enemy's shields is typically problematic at best, it's doubtful that the captains of the ships at wolf 359 would have even considered the strategy of beaming in torpedoes. It's not really something you can cook up during the heat of battle. The Borg were also relative unknowns, so the Federation wasn't entirely aware of their abilities or weaknesses.

Precisely.

Frankly, I recall no specific instance where the Federation has successfully "overwhelmed" Borg shielding. Every engagement has showed them to "bypass" Borg shielding via their random weaponry frequency/modulation settings.

[DaveJB]

Frankly, I recall no specific instance where the Federation has successfully "overwhelmed" Borg shielding. Every engagement has showed them to "bypass" Borg shielding via their random weaponry frequency/modulation settings.

How about First Contact then? Granted, we didn't hear exactly how the early stages of the battle went, but in the lack of any real evidence, any fancy tricks employed by the Feds would probably violate Occam's Razor.

[Rogue 9]

Frankly, I recall no specific instance where the Federation has successfully "overwhelmed" Borg shielding. Every engagement has showed them to "bypass" Borg shielding via their random weaponry frequency/modulation settings.

How about First Contact then? Granted, we didn't hear exactly how the early stages of the battle went, but in the lack of any real evidence, any fancy tricks employed by the Feds would probably violate Occam's Razor.

Modulating phaser frequency in order to overcome Borg adaptation is Starfleet S.O.P., AFAIK. Its not all that fancy a trick. Although they'd do much better to just mount and use railguns on starships. I'll wager that my battle fleet from the STGOD would kick the Borg's Collective ass. Pun intended.

[DaveJB]

I'd assumed that by the time FC came around, Starfleet's ship-mounted phasers had enough power to make Borg adaption useless.

However, if we were to go by that logic, then the Borg shouldn't have been able to adapt to the deflector-blast in BoBW. It could be that they don't have any trouble adapting to individual hits, but multiple hits close together pose more of a problem.

All of this has exactly zero evidence though, so I'll stop talking!

[General Zod]

I'd assumed that by the time FC came around, Starfleet's ship-mounted phasers had enough power to make Borg adaption useless.

However, if we were to go by that logic, then the Borg shouldn't have been able to adapt to the deflector-blast in BoBW. It could be that they don't have any trouble adapting to individual hits, but multiple hits close together pose more of a problem.

All of this has exactly zero evidence though, so I'll stop talking!

federation phasers are still based on rotating frequencies by that time. this makes their actual power output relatively worthless past a few shots. after that the borg can adapt to the frequencies being used.

[DaveJB]

federation phasers are still based on rotating frequencies by that time. this makes their actual power output relatively worthless past a few shots. after that the borg can adapt to the frequencies being used.

That's certainly true for handheld versions, but did it still apply for ship-mounted versions? In FC, the Starfleet ships were still getting hits through, and I don't recall Voyager having any trouble with the Borg adapting to it's weapons.

[General Zod]

federation phasers are still based on rotating frequencies by that time. this makes their actual power output relatively worthless past a few shots. after that the borg can adapt to the frequencies being used.

That's certainly true for handheld versions, but did it still apply for ship-mounted versions? In FC, the Starfleet ships were still getting hits through, and I don't recall Voyager having any trouble with the Borg adapting to it's weapons.

all federation phasers work off the same principles, so yes. the ship mounted phasers did use frequencies.