This wouldn't seem consistent with Starfleet's plan to engage the Borg cube at the Typhoon sector. Since Starfleet had enough warning time that a remote outpost like DS9 could provide their primary warship for the battle, it makes far more sense Starfleet would amass one large fleet and try to hit the cube hard in a single engagement.Stark wrote:If you assume the Borg made a beeline for Earth without detours, and that SF knew they'd do this, then isn't it likely that upon detecting the Borg ship inbound, SF 'bunched' its spread-out forces near the corridor the cube would pass through into a series of groups intended to engage the cube as it passed?
I daresay Starfleet tactical planners would realize smaller groups of starships would be obliterated due to their experience from Wolf 359. Their goal is to destroy the cube, not delay it with stopping and destroying smaller groups of starships.From the BoBW precedent, the cube can be expected to stop and destroy each group, but if there wasn't much warning, the fleet at Typhon could simply be the ships that were in the area, and not a particularly strong force.
While it's possible the cube wasn't engaged 24/7, I find it hard to believe Starfleet would breakup their fleets into such isolated groups, particularily since they know small groups would be handled that much easier.Thus, regardless of how long it took the Borg to make it to Earth, it seems unlikely that it was being enaged 24/7, instead of a series of isolated, and likely brief encounters with assembled local forces, Wolf 359 style.
Every indication suggests Starfleet amassed a single fleet in the Typhoon Sector and attempted to stop the cube there. This would be consistent with knowing the Defiant was at both known battle locations, comments like Troi's "We've just recieved word from the fleet. They've engaged the Borg.", and etc.
