Balance of Terror plasma torpedo firepower

Patrick Degan · Post by **Patrick Degan** » 2003-12-18 12:52pm

The Neutral Zone monitoring outposts were part of the treaty agreement which ended the Earth/Romulan War, so their locations were no secret. The Romulans certainly knew of their existence and deliberately targeted them in their probing attack —to see if their enemies had both the strength and the will to continue enforcing the Zone.

The Kernel · Post by **The Kernel** » 2003-12-18 01:03pm

Patrick Degan wrote:The Neutral Zone monitoring outposts were part of the treaty agreement which ended the Earth/Romulan War, so their locations were no secret. The Romulans certainly knew of their existence and deliberately targeted them in their probing attack —to see if their enemies had both the strength and the will to continue enforcing the Zone.

Perhaps you would like to provide a quote for this? Sure they new the location of at least four of them (not surprising even if they were hidden since they had decades to find them) but there wasn't anything in Spock's statement about the treaty that suggested that the outposts were part of the treaty negotiations.

Darth Servo · Post by **Darth Servo** » 2003-12-18 01:25pm

The Kernel wrote:Now why on Earth would they have done the building at the Neutral Zone itself? Why not simply carve up the asteroid at a Starbase then tow it over? It wouldn't do much good to set up a hidden base on-site regardless of depth.

Wouldn't it look kind of suspicious if a brand new asteroid just showed up along the neutral zone one day? Assuming the Romulans didn't pick up the warping Fed ship towing it there in the first place.

The Kernel · Post by **The Kernel** » 2003-12-18 01:35pm

Darth Servo wrote:Wouldn't it look kind of suspicious if a brand new asteroid just showed up along the neutral zone one day? Assuming the Romulans didn't pick up the warping Fed ship towing it there in the first place.

See, that's the problem with this entire argument. We don't know enough about Fed/Romulan sensors to know what the sensor coverage of these bases are, what the Romulans can detect on the other side of the Neutral Zone, whether or not they can see through a mile of iron and whether they actually track space objects like asteroids on the other side of the zone. That's pretty much why I'm only presenting this as a possiblity as we really don't know enough about Fed technology to make any definative statements one way or the other.

Patrick Degan · Post by **Patrick Degan** » 2003-12-18 02:05pm

We can know from the scale of the chart put up on the bridge main viewer the spacing between outposts and from ther make a reasonable estimate of the sensor ranges.

Although Spock makes no direct statement that the NZ outposts were part of the treaty arrangement, he does directly state that "entry into this zone by either side would constitute an act of war. The Treaty has remained unbroken ever since".

It seems fairly obvious that the only way to monitor the Neutral Zone for violations of its space is through monitor outposts along its perimetre and those outposts must certainly not be a secret to either side.

The Kernel · Post by **The Kernel** » 2003-12-18 02:20pm

Patrick Degan wrote: It seems fairly obvious that the only way to monitor the Neutral Zone for violations of its space is through monitor outposts along its perimetre and those outposts must certainly not be a secret to either side.

I'd agree, but do you think that their locations were known to both sides? How come the Romulan outposts weren't on the chart then?

Darth Servo · Post by **Darth Servo** » 2003-12-18 03:54pm

The Kernel wrote:I'd agree, but do you think that their locations were known to both sides? How come the Romulan outposts weren't on the chart then?

Wouldn't the Feds want to keep that information classified?

The Kernel · Post by **The Kernel** » 2003-12-18 05:47pm

Darth Servo wrote:
The Kernel wrote:I'd agree, but do you think that their locations were known to both sides? How come the Romulan outposts weren't on the chart then?
Wouldn't the Feds want to keep that information classified?

It was a map being used for a tactical situation by a Federation battleship! Don't you think that such info might have been pertinent?

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2003-12-18 05:53pm

The Kernel wrote:It was a map being used for a tactical situation by a Federation battleship! Don't you think that such info might have been pertinent?

Not for the purposes of the briefing in question, no.

Lord Poe · Post by **Lord Poe** » 2003-12-18 08:51pm

The Kernel wrote:See, that's the problem with this entire argument. We don't know enough about Fed/Romulan sensors to know what the sensor coverage of these bases are, what the Romulans can detect on the other side of the Neutral Zone, whether or not they can see through a mile of iron and whether they actually track space objects like asteroids on the other side of the zone. That's pretty much why I'm only presenting this as a possiblity as we really don't know enough about Fed technology to make any definative statements one way or the other.

In "Return to Tomorrow", Scotty was able to detect a livable module with oxygen 100 miles deep into a planet. The "tracking of space objects" argument is silly. How is the Neutral Zone enforced if both sides DON'T have listening posts. And how in the hell would you explain seven asteroids that just happen to be lined up AT the Neutral Zone?

Cool viewscreen image from BoT

The Silence and I · Post by **The Silence and I** » 2003-12-20 07:05pm

What kills starships in Startrek? Bleedthrough. I would present the possibility a mile of iron can significantly lengthen the listening posts' survivability, while shields are up. However, once shields fail I would argue survivability would not be significantly lengthened.