Praxis wrote:
Actually, if I recall correctly the cube retreated (sorta- it retreated straight toward Earth). The Enterprise used it's little antimatter trick, remember?
As Gandalf said, the antimatter spread was a harmless trick, an illusion meant only to distract the Borg's attention from Data and Worf's shuttle as it approached the cube.
Though the cube
did ultimately withdraw, there is
no indication it "retreated" because the E-D posed any threat. I certainly found no such thing in the script, excerpts from which I'd be only too happy to share.
We saw several times they diverted firepower to cover the Defiant.
Correction: one exterior shot, and one shot only. By the time the Dominion fleet had surrounded the station, the station wasn't protecting
Defiant anymore, and she was taking an extreme pounding. Had Gen. Martok not arrived in
Rotarran,
Defiant very likely would've been destroyed in fact.
Furthermore, the Defiant would be there to defend the station in the scenario above, would it not?
DS9 was occupied with defending the ship laying the minefield.
In one exterior shot, to the tune of perhaps 6-8 torpedoes. Beyond that, we didn't see DS9 protecting
Defiant.
Whether it'd make sense to do so or not's irrelevant; we didn't see it, so it's a non-issue. (With well over 100 Dominion ships buzzing the station from every quarter, it's doubtful Worf would've had that many clear shots, anyway.)
While they did surround the station, the station could get the same effect by rotating to put the Cube above it. Will the Borg be smart (and maneuverable- those cubes are BIG) enough to move?
When has the station ever done such a thing? That it can isn't established to my knowledge.
Even if we
did say the station could manage this, though, what makes you think it'd be enough firepower to tackle this exceptionally stupid cube?
And those rapid-fire torp launchers pop out and start slamming the cube all over. Remember the fire at the Negh'var? 9 shots fired, only 2 hit. Against a cube, all nine would hit easily.
I don't think 9 shots were fired at
Negh'Var alone
But that's beside the point. The question is, would those 9 torpedoes/launcher (? 9, really?) be enough to take out the cube?
How would we determine such a thing? Do we know the launchers' firing rates? For that matter, does anyone know how long the battle lasted in "Call To Arms"? Do we have a rough idea of the photorps' accuracy in that engagement?
In Voyager, Borg adaptation...sucks. The Federation is constantly outrunning it by rotating phaser frequencies and torpedo frequencies, finding tricks to beam stuff through their shields, etc, etc. Which means vs a Voyager cube, DS9 will find ways to keep them from adapting.
Which VGR episodes are you thinking about?
I can't find any evidence to support the idea that the Federation "constantly outran" the Borg by rotating phaser frequencies and the like. I only recall
one instance in which VGR beamed a photorp onto a Borg ship (a tiny ship, at that). Its shields were already
down.
IOW, please be specific. I don't need exact quotes or the like, especially since as much are largely unavailable online
But I'll need more than vague terms and descriptions.
I can say this, though: I wouldn't be so hasty in assuming what
Voyager managed against the Borg would be easily replicable by DS9. That verges on a False Calse fallacy, because it wasn't so much "Starfleet ingenuity" that saved VGR's ass as it was one person's experience: 7 of 9.
Vs a BOBW cube though, DS9 would have serious trouble with adaptation. While DS9 would (in my opinion, judging from observed firepower) outgun the cube, the adaptation would SEVERELY reduce the effectiveness.
Can we quantify the "BOBW" cube's "adaptability" in some way?
I definitely agree that DS9 would outgun the cube, though.
While sheer firepower can eventually overcome adaptation, the Borg would probably carve up DS9 in that time (remember in Q-Who? The torpedoes did almost nothing).
How many torpedoes were fired, again? I remember a handful. I wouldn't expect just a few torpedoes to do appreciable damage...dumb as they might be, the Borg
are powerful in Trek terms.
Remember, the cube has weak armor. In Q-Who, the Enterprise's phasers blast massive craters in the cube, craters the size of the Enterprise. Then when they adapt they do almost nothing. It's generally assumed that photons are more powerful than phasers (also stated in the official TM's), so going on that assumption, DS9's five thousand torpedoes shouldn't have a problem carving a cube if it's not able to adapt in time.
How long does it take DS9 to deploy those 5,000 torpedoes? You're assuming the cube we see in "Q Who?" and "BOBW" could adapt to such a payload based on what evidence?
IMO, DS9's total torpedo stock should destroy a cube. Even if we assume LaForge's statements about the deflector dish beam's output meant an energy release rivaling or surpassing the ship's entire weapons inventory--something which the cube shrugged off effortlessly, it'd seem--the equivalent of ~250 torpedoes is small potatoes next to 5k
The question is, can DS9 aim enough of its launchers at the cube, and fire those fuckers
fast enough, to knock out the cube before the station's
own shields fail?
Given the rapidity with which Borg cubes' weaponry knock down Starfleet shields in TNG
and VGR, I'd say probably not. Borg "tractor beams," in particular, have proven brutally effective shield-killers ("BOBW," "Drone"), reducing a GCS's and
Intrepid's alike from full strength to zero in <5-6 seconds.
We don't know exactly how strong DS9's shields are, and I'm open to ideas on how we might determine just that. I have to guess--a rough guess--however, that the station's ~10-20x tougher than a lone GCS.
At that rate, it'd take the Borg 2 min. of continuous fire to penetrate those shields...factoring in reload times and, as previously noted, firing arcs, just how many torpedoes could the station pump into that cube in two minutes? How many phaser banks could they bring to bear, and how many shots might they get off?
