Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="marcoasalazarm" data-source="post: 8421668" data-attributes="member: 26698">AFAIK, it's ST canon that Borg shielding tech didn't stopped ballistics, but considering the fact that the only kinetic weapon the Federation uses at any point in the franchise is the TR-116 rifle (and a mortar in &quot;Arena&quot; in TOS and the occasional handgun or machine gun poached in-site during an away mission - and most uses of the rifle after its introduction in DS9 have been in ST novels), the whole discussion just has been going on and on amongst the fans (especially because the one &quot;ballistic weapon&quot; we see kill a Borg is the holographic Tommy Gun Picard hacks in &quot;First Contact&quot;. I guess if we take his statement as pure fact (&quot;I disengaged the safety protocols. Without them, even a holographic bullet can kill&quot;), then the holographic bullet still applies enough kinetic energy when it hits (not just &quot;pew-pew&quot; laser energy like the regular phasers) that it can be deadly to anything that isn't already invulnerable to .45 ammo. The discussion the fans then go for is things like Picard only killing two drones so they didn't had time to adapt and such. Or even how exactly do holodecks actually are supposed to hurt someone if the safeties are off (there's some guy in Quora who theorizes that it wasn't a bullet but rather the holodeck teleporting chunks off the Borg where the &quot;bullet impacts&quot; would be).I don't know. My call would be that the Borg are very vulnerable to ballistic weapons but the Queen isn't a complete idiot and has started to manufacture drones with heavier body armor and redundant organs and such that can survive being shot, but as these modifications take time to manufacture, a garden-variety drone wouldn't have them.Even then, an assimilated Marine would stand head and shoulders above other drones. They would be a terror on the battlefield. Pretty sure that Marines and the Adeptus Mechanicus would see this as the ultimate heresy, too.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="marcoasalazarm, post: 8421668, member: 26698"] AFAIK, it's ST canon that Borg shielding tech didn't stopped ballistics, but considering the fact that the only kinetic weapon the Federation uses at any point in the franchise is the TR-116 rifle (and a mortar in "Arena" in TOS and the occasional handgun or machine gun poached in-site during an away mission - and most uses of the rifle after its introduction in DS9 have been in ST novels), the whole discussion just has been going on and on amongst the fans (especially because the one "ballistic weapon" we see kill a Borg is the holographic Tommy Gun Picard hacks in "First Contact". I guess if we take his statement as pure fact ("I disengaged the safety protocols. Without them, even a holographic bullet can kill"), then the holographic bullet still applies enough kinetic energy when it hits (not just "pew-pew" laser energy like the regular phasers) that it can be deadly to anything that isn't already invulnerable to .45 ammo. The discussion the fans then go for is things like Picard only killing two drones so they didn't had time to adapt and such. Or even how exactly do holodecks actually are supposed to hurt someone if the safeties are off (there's some guy in Quora who theorizes that it wasn't a bullet but rather the holodeck teleporting chunks off the Borg where the "bullet impacts" would be). I don't know. My call would be that the Borg are very vulnerable to ballistic weapons but the Queen isn't a complete idiot and has started to manufacture drones with heavier body armor and redundant organs and such that can survive being shot, but as these modifications take time to manufacture, a garden-variety drone wouldn't have them. Even then, an assimilated Marine would stand head and shoulders above other drones. They would be a terror on the battlefield. Pretty sure that Marines and the Adeptus Mechanicus would see this as the ultimate heresy, too. [/QUOTE]

Verification