What I would do with the Federation

[Batman]

Depends on the nature of the enemies. You have to remember that the high end of available adversaries includes species that could wish the Borg out of existence so enemies that could stand up to/kick the Borg's teeth in if they lose their strategic mobility advantage are, while never to my knowledge mentioned, decidedly possible.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

It depends if the "Neurolytic pathogen" that Janeway infected the queen with spread to the rest of the collective, however the sphere that was chasing Voyager still seemed combat-effective, suggesting its sole purpose was simply to affect the Queen's connection to the collective as opposed to the individual drones on each vessel, or between vessels.

If it's the former, then each vessel becomes a sitting target, unable to defend itself or do anything, at which point it becomes a great Borg turkey-shoot. Then it's only a matter of time before other races notice; at some point though drones will begin to regain their individuality, which will fuck things up further. If it's the latter, then individual ships can still function but not communicate with the rest of the collective, meaning they're incapable of co-ordinating anything or move as a fleet. Whether the Borg manage to restore communications, if it's down to individual ships figuring it out how, connecting is going to be patchy. And if any individuals manage to take control of their respective ships they may make a bid to control the collective (with hundreds to thousands of vessels of each shape and size it's more than likely), you have the mother of all Borg civil wars going on.

[FaxModem1]

Was there any hint of individuality returning to the drones in Endgame? All we know is that they weren't responding to the Queen's orders and things were malfunctioning like crazy. We do not see drones seizing ships and fighting each other like they did in Unimatrix Zero.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

We didn't see any drones after the virus was assimilated in the video below so we don't have any directly observed effects.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8e8EieU8M8

In the Voyager episode, "Survival instinct", we see a small group of drones separated from the collective who slowly begin to regain their individuality, implying that even if drones lose connection to the hive mind, they won't remember who they were right away.

[FaxModem1]

Do we know to what extent the malfunctions went? The borg can't regain their individuality if they're being blown up by the virus Future Janeway gave them.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

It was only the unicomplex that blew up from the virus, the transwarp hub was destroyed by transphasic torpedoes, as was the sphere. The Queen remained in contact with the sphere and it was able to chase Voyager, there was no indication of the ship itself suffering any ill effects. What is unknown is whether the virus, being introduced at the heart of the Borg, would have caused the rest of the ships in the collective to explode once it had spread to them, or whether the effect was unique to the unicomplex.

[Enigma]

But killing one Queen would only result of activating its clone. The Queen also died in First Contact. I don't recall the Borg Collective falling on their asses (other than those in the movie).

[Enigma]

Scenario I (in charge of the Federation):

1. Pour lots of money into the fleet, especially sponsoring development of transwarp, improved transporters, improved phasers, and other new technologies.

You mean pour lots of resources into such things. I believe the Federation has already been doing that.

2. Place all of the member worlds under the direct control of the central government and assign a governor to each world.

Extremely stupid. The UFP would almost immediately disband.

3. Conquer and annex those alien species who are pre-warp.

Do that and see a civil war unfold.

4. Expand and improve the communication system, build more starbases, and increase the size of the fleet.

What makes you think the Federation hasn't been improving their communication systems or even expand upon them? Upgrading the communication systems could just be a series of software upgrades, improving the performance and efficiency of existing hardware.

Building starbases will happen where it is needed. If the Federation has starbases in every member system and in vital locations then building more would be a waste of resources. Outposts would be the way to go, customized for whatever the purpose would be.

Increasing the fleet size works well if there is an abundance of officers and NCOs to crew them. If you want to build more ships then admit more people into Starfleet Academy and its satellite facilities.

5. Create a Federation army and give it advanced weapons, from artillery to grenades.

Not really necessary. Do something similar to what Switzerland does. If I'm not mistaken, those of age are given some form of basic training but they are expected to keep their personal gear including weapons at home. So in this case, with those eligible, give them basic training, their gear plus weapon and send them home. Occasionally call them up to keep the training fresh or if war is looming. Have a small fraction be professional soldiers. They'd be given extensive training and be used in minor conflicts. For me, I'd make sure the training include the use of cover and firing from cover than the standard "Stand and Deliver".

The UFP does not need a huge army at all times. Train their citizens in basic combat and have them familiarized with their gear and have a small cadre of professional soldiers. Armored vehicles could be viable if their armor is dense enough to resist small arms phaser fire or else they are completely useless. Also they'd be viable only if there is no air or orbital support. Having a starship (or two) or runabouts on your side would be vastly preferable than some tanks and arties.

6. Arm Starfleet Security with more weapons.

You mean give them access to more weapons? How many weapons do you plan to arm the security officers? A phaser on each hip? With a phaser rifle slung over the back and a bandolier with photon grenades attached? Crotch mounted Derringer phasers that fire with each hip thrust?

Giving them access to more weapons or types of weapons would be better than to weigh them down with more weapons than they need for the task. Starship security would need weapon to better deal with CQC and also for away team missions. Station security would have weapons appropriate for law enforcement and station defense. Ground side security would arguable have the most freedom in weapons access in that they won't have to worry about getting sucked into space for setting off high yield ordinance near the outer bulkhead.

7. Repeal the Prime Directive and other such unnecessary orders.

No need to be so draconian. Modify the Prime Directive so that FC can be made on those civilizations that know of the existence of life on other worlds. Especially those that have tech that can greatly help the UFP.

8. Make final treaty with Romulans and negotiate to get ban on cloaking devices lifted.

Treaty with the Romulans would be plausible with the results of both Nemesis and the destruction of Romulus. There would be a lot of work needed to be done to overcome their xenophobic paranoia but it would be possible. Concessions would be needed to be made, especially if the Federation wants to utilize cloaking technology.

9. Maintain alliance with Klingons.

That goes without saying. But if we can get the RSE on our side then The UFP wouldn't have to worry about offending the Klingon pride if the Klingons do something monumentally stupid and expect the UFP to follow along. We'd have the Romulans with us if the Klingons get miffed and decides to go to war... again.

10. Prepare defenses for any future Borg incursion.

How so? The federation is quite huge. You can't defend everything. You need to elaborate.

11. Sponsor exploration of undiscovered star systems.

Completely idiotic. Sponsoring private companies to explore will be expensive, if there is even any corporations that do that sort of thing. Even if there are such businesses, they'd most likely explore on their own and sell off the results. Mega money would be made if there is a lot of sought after resources. Do you think that private businesses would be paid at a cut rate by a semi military organization or sell their exploratory results on the open market especially if such results contain much wanted info?

Any business that is willing to be sponsored by the Feds would probably do a half assed job in order to maximize profits or are those unable to hack it out on their own.


Me, in regards to system defense, I'd recommend that the Sol system be protected by a dedicated "Home fleet". Heavily armed and defended starship at the expense of range. These ships would stay in the system, with minimal warp capabilities to defend it. Tack on a lot of orbital weapons platform around Earth, Moon and Mars and set up an extensive sensor network so that not even a space flea can enter the system without the Feds knowing about it.

This topic should be moved to PST if this is basically a ST topic only.

[Jedipilot24]

The Voyager crew couldn't make transwarp work even after they got a native expert on the technology. Their attempts to make it work nearly destroyed their ship. Even when they stole a Borg Transwarp coil, they could only make it work for a limited period of time.
Transwarp is not used in Nemesis during a situation where it would have been advantageous to have, meaning that the Federation still doesn't have it a year after Voyager's return. Obviously this is a problem that can't be solved simply by throwing money at it.
You could give Leonardo Da Vinci the plans for the Internal Combustion Engine, but he still wouldn't be able to build one.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

The Voyager crew couldn't make transwarp work even after they got a native expert on the technology. Their attempts to make it work nearly destroyed their ship. Even when they stole a Borg Transwarp coil, they could only make it work for a limited period of time.
Transwarp is not used in Nemesis during a situation where it would have been advantageous to have, meaning that the Federation still doesn't have it a year after Voyager's return. Obviously this is a problem that can't be solved simply by throwing money at it.
You could give Leonardo Da Vinci the plans for the Internal Combustion Engine, but he still wouldn't be able to build one.

Part of the reason is that the Dauntless and Borg ships were built with the slipstream/transwarp tech right from the start, as opposed to "tacked on after the fact". Obviously the ability to build a Borg transwarp coil was beyond Voyager's capabilities, yet they did manage to travel 10,000 ly using slipstream, which needed benamite crystals to work. Federation R&D would have begun research to get it working, though it's more likely they'd build some new ships around the tech to test it, which would be more practical than refitting existing ships until it was better understood. Obviously a year simply isn't enough time for any of this to happen. Since we know the tech can work because of the Dauntless, it's a case of when the Federation cracks it, not if.